Covid-19: in France, the vaccine booster campaign launched in September for those over 65

Published on : 08/26/2021 – 09:10

The vaccine booster campaign against Covid-19 will be launched next month in France, with a resumption in mid-September of vaccinations in retirement homes and the opening of appointments for people 65 and over from the beginning of September , announced Thursday, August 26, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, on RTL.

“From September 12-13, restart of the systematic campaign after obtaining consent for ‘third doses’ in nursing homes,” said the head of government.

“For all over 65 or with comorbidities, they will be able, from the beginning of September, to resume an appointment to have their ‘third dose'”, he added.

In this case, a period of approximately six months should have elapsed between the end of the initial vaccination schedule (one or two doses depending on the vaccines and the history) and the administration of this booster.

Along with the flu shot

The government announced in mid-August the launch of an anti-Covid-19 vaccination booster campaign from mid-September for residents of nursing homes and long-term care units (USLD), people over 80 years old living at home and those particularly susceptible to developing a severe form of Covid-19.

For the vaccination booster of 65 years and over as well as the most vulnerable, the High Authority of Health (HAS) recommended, Tuesday, to administer at the same time the vaccine against the seasonal flu, whose injection campaign must begin at the end of October.

However, HAS stressed that its opinion was “conditional on the validation of this recall by the European Medicines Agency”, since the marketing authorizations currently granted to the various vaccines do not provide for a recall.

With the decrease over time in the effectiveness of anti-Covid-19 vaccines, several countries, including the United States and Israel, have already launched booster vaccination campaigns to try to stem the epidemic outbreaks associated with the Delta variant. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, initially discovered in India and highly contagious.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has, however, repeatedly advised against this type of campaign in recent months, deeming it necessary initially to increase vaccination coverage in developing countries.

According to the latest report released on Wednesday, 62.9% of the French population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

With Reuters