Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace during the European Council by videoconference, March 25, 2021. – ELIOT BLONDET-POOL / SIPA
Faced with the fear of the acceleration of restrictions, Emmanuel Macron tries to reassure. “Nothing has been decided” as to a new turn of the screw in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic, assures the Head of State in the Sunday Newspaper. He also promises to catch up “in a few weeks” with the British in terms of people vaccinated.
“For the coming days, we will look at the effectiveness of the braking measures and if necessary we will take those which are necessary”, underlines the Head of State in this interview carried out Friday evening, while the health situation is of again qualified as “critical” by the executive. In addition, as during his press conference Thursday evening at the end of a European summit, Emmanuel Macron defended in the JDD its choice not to have reconfigured at the end of January, against the advice of many scientists.
Concerning schools, the Head of State repeats that “the complete closure of schools cannot be taboo, but it must remain a last resort and a measure limited to the maximum in time”.
The vaccine strategy assumed “completely”
The president also “fully assumes” the French strategy to deploy the vaccine by age categories, while the vaccination was opened to over 70 years on Saturday. “If I opened up to all age groups at once, there would be social and territorial inequalities in access to the vaccine. It would be a bad political and health choice ”, he said, even if“ certain professions more particularly exposed ”, such as teachers, could be vaccinated earlier, as he had already indicated.
While France will have “more and more doses”, Emmanuel Macron relies on “mega-centers” to meet the objectives of the executive: ten million French people vaccinated in mid-April, 20 million in mid-May, 30 million in mid-May. June. He claims to be able to keep his commitment to “offer a vaccine to all adults who want it before the end of the summer.” The Head of State is thus convinced that “in a few weeks, we will have completely caught up with the British”.
Vaccine production capacity expected to rise sharply
Engaged since December in a massive vaccination campaign, the United Kingdom has administered nearly 30 million first doses of vaccine, against 7.5 million in France. But the difference is much smaller when it comes to the number of people who have already received their second injection.
“We Europeans will have delivered in mid-July the equivalent of 300 million doses” and “by the end of 2021, we will reach an annual production capacity of two to three billion doses”, says the head of the State, indicating that “52 European factories will be mobilized” by this program.