The rate of vaccination against Covid-19 remains “clearly insufficient” worried the Ministry of Health this Tuesday, June 21: “It’s not going fast enough, there aren’t enough people coming to get vaccinated. »
To date, less than 2.2 million second boosters have been injected, out of more than 8.7 million eligible people (over 60s and immunocompromised). As a moderate recovery of the epidemic begins, the government has called on the elderly to receive the injection ” as soon as possible “.
Nearly 200,000 “fourth dose”
Yet, with nearly 200,000 “fourth dose”, the past week has been the most prolific since the launch of the campaign in mid-March. But the rule of six months since the first reminder inflates in parallel the eligible population, which will exceed 9 million at the beginning of July.
Concern is particularly acute for nursing home residents (48% of eligible vaccinated) and other people over 80 (31%), who must “Get vaccinated as soon as possible to spend the summer and fall peacefully”insisted the ministry.
Also pointing “clearly insufficient vaccination rates”Professor Alain Fischer, Chairman of the Vaccine Strategy Guidance Council, pointed out that the “significant decrease” of the protection generated by the first reminder “fully justify” a new dose in older people for “protect them from serious forms until autumn”.
Especially since the “moderate epidemic recovery” observed in recent weeks (the number of cases has more than doubled in three weeks) “is accompanied by a small resumption of hospitalizations” and risk of causing “a time-delayed increase” admissions to critical care and deaths, he noted.
All the more reason not to wait for new vaccines (especially those from Pfizer, Moderna, Sanofi and Hipra) even if “the ideal is that they are available at the time of the flu campaign” for a new reminder at the end of the year.