the executive is looking at “the last levers” to operate before stronger restrictions

How to slow down the fifth wave of Covid-19 without slowing down the country or rushing the French? The executive is to meet on Monday, December 6, at the Elysee Palace, during a new health defense council. This meeting, officially intended for “see if there is a need to take further action”, could give rise to some announcements.

The possible vaccination of 5-11 year olds will be on the program, according to a document from the Ministry of Health consulted by AFP. a “precise schedule” must be communicated at the end of the defense council, according to this text, which provides for open vaccination to “all children” of this age group from “early January 2022”. Deliveries of “Pfizer pediatric vaccine doses” are planned from mid-December.

This defense council could “officially record the principle of vaccination of the most fragile 5-11 year old children and the schedule thereof”, advance, more cautiously, a source close to the executive joined by France Televisions. The government’s decision is suspended on further advice from the National Consultative Ethics Committee and the High Authority for Health. For now, the latter recommends vaccination only for 360,000 children “who present a risk of developing a severe form of the disease”.

More globally, “The challenge is to see what are the last levers that we could activate without placing constraints on the vaccinated people”, specifies our source. “A priori, it is not a question of restrictive measures, but of incentives”, especially towards more teleworking, she adds. “It will probably be ‘vigilance before last summons’.”