Olivier Véran hopes for “20 million recalls by Christmas”

The government is setting a target (too?) High for its vaccination campaign against the Coronavirus. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran wishes to see “20 million French eligible for the recall having had the recall by Christmas”. “The current vaccine dynamic allows us to hope so,” he assured Friday during a trip to Lille. Such a goal, which would constitute according to him “a real achievement”, would imply continuing to “be at 500, 600, 700,000 booster vaccinations per day”.

In order to keep up with the pace of vaccinations, he said he was considering allowing medical students to perform these acts in pharmacy (which can now open on Sundays). “Moreover, during the holiday season, I will upgrade undergraduate and graduate students who vaccinate,” he added. Some 710,000 French people received a booster dose on Thursday, he said, bringing the number of people who received this dose in the country to 12.5 million. Among them, nearly 90% of eligible over 65s are up to date.

The peak of the fifth wave not yet reached

For his part, Gabriel Attal said Friday on RTL that he hoped the epidemic situation would improve by Christmas. To date, “we see that the epidemic continues to gain ground but that its rate of increase tends to weaken (…): it increased by 60% from one week to the next there is ten days, then it went to 40%, today we are around 20%, ”detailed the government spokesperson.

Asked whether he recommended a gauge at the family table for the end of year celebrations, Gabriel Attal confirmed that the government, for the time being, was not issuing this year “no recommendation such as this one” . In addition, “we see that the French are careful, make efforts (…) Small precautions make the big difference”, he summed up, refusing to be in their “infantilization”.

The incidence rate is “470 per 100,000 inhabitants, which means that we have passed the peak of the fourth wave, of the third wave, and that we are approaching the peak of the second wave, the one that had taken place. a year ago “, but” fortunately, we have two to three times fewer people hospitalized today thanks to the vaccine “, he added, while refusing to predict when the peak of this 5th wave could be reached.