French Health Minister Olivier Veran has announced that pharmacies will be permitted to temporarily open on Sundays as vaccination centres.
“We are increasing the number of centres that can vaccinate,” France’s Health Minister Olivier Véran on Thursday. “Liberals, pharmacists, doctors, physiotherapists, nursing midwives, receive more than four million doses of messenger RNA vaccines every week.”
To simplify and amplify this recall campaign, Véran has signed a decree authorising and encouraging pharmacists to open every Sunday without limitation in the months of December and January.
The move comes amidst concerns over the latest leap in Covid cases, which authorities are calling the “fifth wave”. On 8th December, the ministry recorded 72,000 new cases in a single day, a record since the start of the pandemic. The previous record was set back in November 2020 with roughly 70,000 single day cases.
The peak of the fifth wave could be reached by the end of the month, the minister said, if the population adheres to social distancing and mask-wearing rules, as well as limiting gatherings, though these requests seem a bit unlikely as the social holiday season looms.
Nonetheless, Véran uses science to justify his optimism, saying, “We are seeing a slowdown in epidemic growth: we were at +60% of cases in a week, then +40%, now it is between +25 and +30%.” He is asking the French to “multiply daily efforts” to slow the march of the disease.
Veran also warned that new controls will be considered if people do not adhere to the rules, saying, “We do not need to impose restrictions, since the French know how to protect themselves from the virus: it is aperitifs with friends that we will cancel even if it is the end of the year period. These are those moments of conviviality, moments of relaxation, where we take off the mask too easily because we feel safe.”
France has 47.6 million fully vaccinated people, roughly 70% of the population, and 14.6% have received a booster so far. The hope is that Sunday openings at the pharmacies will incentivise those who work weekdays to come in and get jabbed at a convenient time.
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash