Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

VACCINE

French PM says he will get AstraZeneca shot ‘very quickly’ if suspension lifted

French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Tuesday vowed he would be vaccinated "very quickly" with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to give the public confidence in the jab if it is ruled as safe by the EU medicines agency.

Published: 17 March 2021 08:24 CET
French PM says he will get AstraZeneca shot 'very quickly' if suspension lifted
French PM Jean Castex. Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

Castex, 55, said that as a person of his age with no underlying health conditions he had been ready to wait his turn until later in the year for a vaccination, but had changed his mind to help restore confidence in AstraZeneca’s shot.

“I have decided that it would be wise if I was vaccinated very quickly once the suspension, as I hope, is lifted and all the guarantees are given, to show my fellow citizens that the vaccine is the way out of this crisis and can be taken in all security,” he told BFM TV in a live interview.

France is vaccinating in a strict priority order which currently includes healthcare workers, over 75s and people aged 50-74 with an underlying health condition.

Politicians are expected to abide by the rules, and so far the only politician who has been publicly vaccinated is Health Minister Olivier Véran, who is a doctor and qualifies for vaccination as a health worker.

READ ALSO When will you be eligible for a Covid vaccine in France?

France, Germany and 12 other European countries have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precaution pending a ruling Thursday by the European Medicines Agency following reports of blood clots.

“If there is the slightest doubt among my fellow citizens we have to lift it. We are awaiting the opinion of the EMA and once we have it we will follow it,” the prime minister said.

“I think the opinion will be positive and… we can restore a full confidence in this vaccine.”

Covid-19 infections are stubbornly high in France, which has not imposed any nationwide lockdown since last year, as pressure on hospitals in the Paris region forces the government to think about tightening its measures.

Castex indicated that new restrictions could be put in place for the Paris region, such as the weekend lockdowns already imposed in the Nice and Calais regions.

“We are in a worrying and critical situation and, clearly, measures of the type that have been used in other parts of the territory are on the table,” he said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

France’s Covid-19 app to be ‘put to sleep’

France's Covid-tracker app, used for months for the all-important 'health pass' will be switched off today, health officials have confirmed.

Published: 30 June 2023 13:29 CEST
France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off. 

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate. 

SHOW COMMENTS