PARIS (Reuters) – France will extend the period between the first and second COVID mRNA vaccine shots to six weeks out of four weeks from April 14 to speed up the inoculation campaign, Health Minister Olivier Veran told JDD on Sunday.
Although the French health authority recommended a six-week period between the two shots in January to extend supplies, the then government said there was insufficient data on how well the longer-term vaccines worked.
France could do this safely now because it vaccinates a younger age group, Veran said.
“(This) will allow us to vaccinate faster without reducing protection,” the minister told the newspaper.
France has approved the use of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines.
Veran also said that from Monday the AstraZeneca vaccine will be made available to all those over 55 years old and not only to those with serious pre-existing conditions.
After a glacial start, the launch of the vaccine in France is reaching its peak, reaching a target of 10 million first doses per week ahead of the target in mid-April. The government aims to deliver another ten million photos by mid-May.
Johnson & Johnson will deliver the first 200,000 doses to France on Monday, a week earlier, Veran said.
President Emmanuel Macron, who has been forced by a rising infection rate and an overburdened health system to impose a third nationwide blockade, is relying on an accelerated vaccine launch to allow the country to gradually reopen in the middle. next month.
The number in intensive care continues to rise, and France will almost certainly cross the threshold of 100,000 deaths this week. He reported more than 43,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday and said there were now 5,769 critically ill patients.
However, Veran said there are signs that a new blockage is beginning to slow the rate of infection.
“It remains very high,” Veran told JDD. “We can expect autumn to come after a period of stabilization. But for that we must continue. ”
Reporting by Richard Lough; Edited by Daniel Wallis