12:04 p.m., January 8, 2021
People over the age of 75 who do not reside in nursing homes will be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19 faster than expected. The government’s initial schedule did not provide for an injection for this category of the population before February. Pressed to speed up the vaccination campaign, Prime Minister Jean Castex finally announced at a press conference on Thursday that the 5 million French people concerned would be able to be vaccinated from Monday, January 18. Two days earlier, on RTL, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, had promised a vaccination before the end of the month. Here is how it will go.
100 vaccination centers already open, 600 at the end of the month
This campaign will take place in departmental centers, the list of which will be available in the form of an interactive map on the site. sante.fr. “One center per department has already been opened, ie 100 centers on the territory”, indicated Jean Castex. They are currently available for healthcare professionals, firefighters and home helpers. The government then intends to ramp up with 300 centers from “next Monday”, then “600 gradually until the end of January”.
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“Each municipality will not have its own center, warned Olivier Véran, it would be inconsistent given the number of doses and people to be vaccinated. The departmental distribution is decided in consultation with the State services within the framework of territorial units . ”
Appointments online or by phone from Thursday
People who wish to be vaccinated will need to make an appointment. To do this, they will have three options: call a national number, which has not yet been communicated, call the local vaccination center or reserve a time slot on the sante.fr site. “We want to give access to this telephone line and to the website next Thursday,” or January 14, said Olivier Véran, who promised to expand the means to make an appointment thereafter.
An interview or a questionnaire to fill out
For nursing home residents, vaccinations must be preceded by a medical consultation a few days before the injection, in order to ensure the informed consent of the person and the absence of contraindications. This time, this preliminary consultation becomes optional. These points will in fact be verified on site. Once at the vaccination center, “a doctor or any other caregiver will ask you a few questions or even have you fill out a very simple self-questionnaire which will just aim to verify that you can be vaccinated normally and in good conditions”, Olivier explained. Véran.
Here is how you can make an appointment and how your vaccination will go in practice ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/dzjBATLqP6
– Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) January 7, 2021
For example, people will be asked if they have been recently infected with Covid-19, if they are showing symptoms, if they are taking medication, if they have serious allergies or if they have been vaccinated against the flu in the past. the last three weeks. If necessary, a doctor can perform a medical examination. “There will always be a doctor present at the center,” assured the Minister of Health.
Three to six weeks between the first and second injection
After which, a doctor, a caregiver will carry out the vaccination, by intramuscular injection into the shoulder. Vaccinated seniors will have to stay on site for about fifteen minutes, for the sake of precaution.
All these steps should be repeated three to six weeks later, for the vaccine booster. During their press conference, Jean Castex and Olivier Véran indeed announced their decision to postpone the injection of the second dose of vaccine for up to six weeks. This choice follows a communication from the National Medicines Safety Agency, which considers that “the time limit for the administration of the second dose may be considered between 21 and 42 days in view of the specific current circumstances”. The BioNTech laboratory, for its part, recommends administering the second dose of its vaccine after three weeks and warned that maximum protection was not demonstrated in case of postponement.
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And after that? We will have to be patient. “This vaccination will necessarily be progressive and will take several weeks”, warned Olivier Véran, as and when deliveries by the laboratories. People aged 65 and over will follow, that is to say 7 million additional French people.
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