In many departments, it is impossible to obtain a vaccination appointment for the second booster of the vaccine against Covid-19, an injection reserved for people over 60. In some areas, there are no more vaccination slots available in the short term.
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“In the whole department, it seems that there is not a single slot available for a week”, despairs Nadine, 75 years old. For two weeks, this resident of Drôme has been looking for a vaccination slot for her second booster dose. “There would be a few places in Valencia, but it’s an hour and a half driveshe laments. We hear on the radio ‘vaccinate, vaccinate’ and then in fact… It’s impossible.”
>> Covid-19: follow the evolution of the epidemic in France and around the world
Faced with the return of the Covid-19 epidemic and the government’s calls for the elderly to do this booster injection, there has been a surge in recent weeks. Over the past seven days, around 30,000 French people have made an appointment each day for a booster dose.
The Drôme department is not the only one concerned: there are hardly any vaccination slots available in a vaccination center, a pharmacy or at a doctor’s before at least 10 days in Vendée, in Landes, in Tarn , in the Côtes-d’Armor, or the Haute-Savoie. And the list is long. Conversely, no problem finding a niche in Bas-Rhin, Seine-Maritime, Pas-de-Calais, Var, Haute Corse and generally in large cities.
So why this heterogeneity? Why do some areas lack more vaccines than others? There are several reasons: the vaccination centers there have closed, and some pharmacists and liberal doctors who vaccinate are on vacation or have insufficiently anticipated patient demand. The Ministry of Health, however, ensures that it delivers in just 48 hours the health professionals who order vaccines.