Faced with an increase in the circulation of the Covid-19 virus, Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau has decided to bring forward the vaccination campaign by two weeks, to October 2, he announced on Friday. Vaccination for the most vulnerable was initially to be carried out at the same time as that of the flu, from October 17, but the minister will follow the advice of the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks (Covars) which recommends “access to the vaccination booster as soon as possible”.
“Faced with uncertainties about the evolution of the circulation of the virus, I contacted Covars on September 8 to ask them whether it was necessary to accelerate the opening of the vaccination campaign against Covid,” detailed the minister. “I have just received Professor Brigitte Autran, its president, who gave me the opinion of September 15 recommending opening vaccination more quickly to fragile people and more directly exposed to the virus,” he continued. This decision follows a “simple observation: the Covid-19 epidemic is here”.
Those over 65, priority target
In France, the virus surveillance system has been considerably simplified and is currently close to that of the flu. In this context, it is difficult to closely monitor the circulation of the virus. “We think that the incidence has increased by around thirty percent since last week, this must be taken with great caution but the virus is circulating, each of us can see cases around us,” noted Aurélien Rousseau.
Vaccination will mainly target those over 65, vulnerable people, suffering from co-morbidities, pregnant women, nursing home residents and people living in contact with vulnerable people. It will initially use the new Pfizer vaccine, adapted to the current majority circulating variant, XBB.1.5. Some 2.5 million doses are currently available, said the minister, specifying that in total we would have “13.5 million doses” by November.