Emmanuel Macron announced this Thursday that the overseas territories will receive the Novavax vaccine as a priority, without messenger RNA, which may be a response to the resistance to vaccination that affects certain departments, said the Elysée. The President of the Republic spoke by videoconference with elected officials from overseas departments and communities, currently in a state of health emergency, in the presence of the Ministers of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu, and Health Olivier Veran.
Seven overseas departments and collectivities are currently placed in health emergency : Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Mayotte, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy. “The president wanted to assure elected officials that the overseas territories will be prioritized for deliveries of Novavax, which is a vaccine without messenger RNA and which can provide answers in departments where vaccination has been able to progress more slowly than elsewhere”, assured the Elysée.
Details of the vaccination pass
“The president was able to clarify things on the vaccine pass”, added the Elysée. “If Reunion and Mayotte entered the pass-vaccination scheme from January 24, like France, in the Antilles and Guyana a consultation takes place.” The presidency refers to a “pragmatic approach to adaptive differentiation” and “following the consultations that are carried out”, the prefects indicate the schedule in which the vaccine pass will be applied in these departments and communities, according to the Elysée.
The president also “guaranteed to the elected officials that the evolution of the situation could lead to new reinforcements” sanitary facilities, according to the same source. National reinforcements are already present overseas, with 90 health personnel in Martinique, eight in Reunion, six in Saint Martin and 50 in Mayotte.
Furthermore, “a mission of the Armed Forces Health Service is deployed from this [jeudi] evening in Reunion to see how it will be effective to come and strengthen the hospital services of this department”, said the Elysée. Reunion’s hospital services are under great strain when this island is swept by the Omicron wave, with the highest incidence rate in France.