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COVID-19 VACCINES

How high are vaccination rates where you live in France?

More than 36.7 million people - or 54.5 percent of the population in France - have received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, while more than 29.2 million people have been fully vaccinated, the government announced on Thursday, July 15th.

Published: 16 July 2021 17:39 CEST
How high are vaccination rates where you live in France?
Photo: Martin Bureau | AFP

These are impressive figures, but the rollout across France varies from city to town, department to department, according to new information from Assurance Maladie (Ameli).

An online simulator, using Ameli figures from June 27th, reveals the take-up of vaccinations down to commune level – before President Emmanuel Macron announced the extension of the pass sanitaire (health passport) to include entry to venues including cinemas, restaurants, cafés, bars, nursing homes and for long-distance train and bus travel in a bid to increase flagging take-up of vaccines.

Millions of people have booked vaccination appointments since President Macron’s televised address on Monday, July 12th. 

READ ALSO Calendar: The key dates to know as France tightens Covid restrictions

On Thursday alone, 544,000 people booked appointments – the third best day since the start of the vaccination campaign, according to Doctolib.

OPINION: Macron is now coercing the French into getting vaccinated – and it seems that they like it

According to Ameli figures, the sixth arrondissement of Paris had the largest take-up of first injections in Ile-de-France, with 66 percent of the population having had at least one jab. But in Dugny, Seine-Saint-Denis, just 26 percent of the population had received one dose, and 18 percent had had both injections.

Meanwhile, in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, 53 percent of the population was already fully vaccinated.

Across the country, residents of Île de Noirmoutier, Vendée, had accepted the vaccination process. A total of 55 percent of the population was fully vaccinated across all age-groups, while 66 percent had had one dose.

Toulouse had one dose in 49.1 percent of the population, Lyon 47.2 percent, and Nice – whose mayor Christian Estrosi has set a target of 80 percent vaccinated by the end of August – had a one-dose figure of 44.1 percent and a fully vaccinated total of 34.3 percent.

The simulator is available here. Simply enter your department number to see information for each commune.

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COVID-19 VACCINES

Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges on Thursday dismissed legal challenges to Italy's vaccine mandate as "inadmissible” and “unfounded”, as 1.9 million people face fines for refusing the jab.

Published: 2 December 2022 12:11 CET
Italy's constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges were asked this week to determine whether or not vaccine mandates introduced by the previous government during the pandemic – which applied to healthcare and school staff as well as over-50s – breached the fundamental rights set out by Italy’s constitution.

Italy became the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.

The Constitutional Court upheld the law in a ruling published on Thursday, saying it considered the government’s requirement for healthcare personnel to be vaccinated during the pandemic period neither unreasonable nor disproportionate.

Judges ruled other questions around the issue as inadmissible “for procedural reasons”, according to a court statement published on Thursday.

This was the first time the Italian Constitutional Court had ruled on the issue, after several regional courts previously dismissed challenges to the vaccine obligation on constitutional grounds.

A patient being administered a Covid jab.

Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP

One Lazio regional administrative court ruled in March 2022 that the question of constitutional compatibility was “manifestly unfounded”.

Such appeals usually centre on the question of whether the vaccine requirement can be justified in order to protect the ‘right to health’ as enshrined in the Italian Constitution.

READ ALSO: Italy allows suspended anti-vax doctors to return to work

Meanwhile, fines kicked in from Thursday, December 1st, for almost two million people in Italy who were required to get vaccinated under the mandate but refused.

This includes teachers, law enforcement and healthcare workers, and the over 50s, who face fines of 100 euros each under rules introduced in 2021.

Thursday was the deadline to justify non-compliance with the vaccination mandate due to health reasons, such as having contracted Covid during that period.

Italy’s health minister on Friday however appeared to suggest that the new government may choose not to enforce the fines.

“It could cost more for the state to collect the fines” than the resulting income, Health Minister Orazio Schillaci told Radio Rai 1.

He went on to say that it was a matter for the Economy and Finance Ministry, but suggested that the government was drawing up an amendment to the existing law.

READ ALSO: Covid vaccines halved Italy’s death toll, study finds

The League, one of the parties which comprises the new hard-right government, is pushing for fines for over-50s to be postponed until June 30th 2023.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had promised a clear break with her predecessor’s health policies, after her Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi’s government handled the pandemic in 2021 when it was in opposition.

At the end of October, shortly after taking office, the new government allowed doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to return to work earlier than planned after being suspended for refusing the Covid vaccine.

There has been uncertainty about the new government’s stance after the deputy health minister in November cast doubt on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, saying he was “not for or against” vaccination.

Italy’s health ministry continues to advise people in at-risk groups to get a booster jab this winter, and this week stressed in social media posts that vaccination against Covid-19 and seasonal flu remained “the most effective way to protect ourselves and our loved ones, especially the elderly and frail”.

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