France gives hospital staff COVID-19 shots as it plays catch-up with neighbours
5381 Min Read
France is accelerating its COVID-19 vaccination of medical staff in hospitals after a slow initial roll-out in one of the most vaccine-sceptical countries in the world that has drawn an angry rebuke from President Emmanuel Macron.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said several thousand COVID-19 shots developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech had been administered across France on Monday.
France was slow off the mark, delivering just 516 COVID-19 inoculations during the first week of a campaign that focused on nursing home residents.
“We have decided to accelerate the campaign by widening the target group to health staff without waiting to complete the vaccination campaign in retirement homes,” Veran said during a visit to a Paris hospital.
The sluggish start compared with European neighbours such as Britain and Germany irritated Macron, who called a meeting with his prime minister and health minister on Monday evening to speed up deployment of the vaccine.
“The president was angry at everybody,” a government source told Reuters. “We can’t afford to fail in the vaccination campaign … This need for results means we’ll get there in the end.”
