Vaccination for the most vulnerable was initially scheduled to begin on October 17, at the same time as that for the flu.
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Faced with an increase in the circulation of the Covid-19 virus, the Minister of Health has decided to bring forward the vaccination campaign by two weeks, to October 2, he announced on Friday September 15 to franceinfo and the AFP. Vaccination for the most vulnerable was initially scheduled to take place at the same time as that for the flu, on October 17. But the Health Risk Anticipation Monitoring Committee (Covars) “advocates accelerating the vaccination campaign and making the vaccine available more quickly than we had planned”explained Aurélien Rousseau to franceinfo, who contacted the Committee last week.
Vaccination will mainly target those over 65, vulnerable people, suffering from co-morbidities, pregnant women, nursing home residents and people living in contact with vulnerable people. People outside of these categories who would like a reminder will also be able to benefit from it. The time limit to be respected after the last injection or a Covid-19 infection remains at least six months.
New variant BA.2.86
Vaccination can be administered by a doctor, a nurse, a midwife or even in a pharmacy, or even on site in a nursing home. The campaign will initially use the new Pfizer vaccine, adapted to the current majority circulating variant, XBB.1.5. “We are on a vaccine which is adapted to the variants which mainly circulate in France”specified the minister to franceinfo. “We have nearly 13.5 million doses ready”he added.
This campaign takes place in a context of circulation of the new variant, BA.2.86, a member of the Omicron family. It is carefully monitored by the WHO due to the very large number of mutations making it likely to evolve more significantly and spread more easily, according to Covars. “We think that the incidence has increased by around thirty percent since last week, this must be taken with great caution but the virus is circulating, each of us can see cases around us”, noted Aurélien Rousseau.