- Title: French people rush to get COVID jabs as health pass measures announced
- Date: 16th July 2021
- Summary: VARIOUS OF SCREEN SHOWING APPOINTMENT LOGS, WITH 1,600 APPOINTMENTS AND 1,810 DOSES ADMINISTERED FOR PFIZER VACCINE
- Embargoed: 30th July 2021 08:46
- Keywords: France Macron Paris Veran announcements centre health pass holidays vaccinations
- Location: NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE AND CHAMBERY, FRANCE
- City: NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE AND CHAMBERY, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA002EM3B4UF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: French vaccination centres are facing a wave of people wishing to get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine following the announcements made by the government to push the population to get inoculated.
In a televised speech on Monday (July 12), President Emmanuel Macron declared COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for medical workers and extended use of a health pass, which was already required in nightclubs and large-scale events, to include restaurants, cinemas and theatres.
The health pass will also be required to board long-distance trains and planes from the start of August, giving a further incentive for people to get the shot.
The Theatre des Sablons vaccination centre in Neuilly-sur-Seine, off Paris, has been fully booked since Macron's speech.
The centre will increase its vaccination capacity from 1,500 doses to 1,900 doses by the start of next week, the centre's deputy director Typhaine Godefroy told Reuters on Thursday (July 15). Staff are also looking for more doctors and nurses to admit first-time vaccine getters in good conditions
Nationwide, 3 million people rushed to get inoculated since Monday, Health Minister Olivier Veran said during a visit to a vaccination centre in the French Alpine city of Chambery.
"This is good news for the people who are entering into this process of protection," Veran said.
But some patients in Neuilly-sur-Seine, like 27-year-old Marine Piton, said they felt forced to receive the vaccine to enjoy outdoor lives and their summer holidays.
"The French are rebels, strikers, that's normal, we're in the land of human rights, but I do think that the fact of making vaccinations mandatory, for me, we're no longer in a land of human rights," she said.
"I'm almost ashamed of being French because now, all of France's values have vanished," she added.
France on Thursday reported 3,617 new COVID-19 cases, including 914 patients in intensive care.
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