France: Mayor shares concerns over vaccine rollout
And residents have taken to social media to voice their displeasure, with one critic suggesting the problems were costing lives on a daily basis. The Grand Est regional health agency has confirmed all of the COVID-19 vaccination centres in the Bas-Rhin prefecture, which includes the city of Strasbourg, are to close for two days on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
The nine centres will reopen on Wednesday, with the closures intended to slow down the scheduling of appointments to ensure the injection of the second dose, scheduled three weeks after the first.
Dr Alexandre Feltz, who is overseeing the operation, said: “The objective of 2,300 vaccinated per week in Strasbourg is revised downwards.
“As soon as we have slots, we will open them, but it depends on the availability of vaccines.”
In contrast, the neighbouring prefecture of Haut-Rhin has not had to halt its operation, Dr Feltz said.
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However, in Strasbourg, almost 600 appointments scheduled for the start of the week have been rescheduled.
On Monday, four centres in Bas-Rhin stayed shut, citing a lack of available vaccine.
Dr Feltz said: “We contacted the 600 people who had appointments Monday and Tuesday. They will be vaccinated, but with a short delay.”
He admitted: “There is tension on the number of vaccines but the Bas-Rhin has been very proactive.
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”5,500 appointments have been made in a few days.”
Posting the to the hostage #BasRhin, Antoine Split, a municipal councillor responsible for community life and socio-cultural centres, tweeted: “The Government is dragging its feet.”
Referring to the pharmaceutical company, he added: “Requisition and nationalisation of Sanofi is what is needed!”
Jean-Claude Thierry added: “How many deaths per day of delay?
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“Due to a delay in delivery from Pfizer-Biontech laboratories, the #Prefecture of the Bas-Rhin & the #Ars have decided to stop for 2 days, on January 25 and 26, the #vaccination in department 67. Bad luck for some.”
Another poster contrasted the fortunes of the neighbouring prefectures, saying: “The Haut-Rhin is supplied by Moderna, it has vaccines.
“The Bas-Rhin supplied by Pfizer lacks vaccines.”
A fourth, Pascal Borschneck, simply observed: “Better to laugh than to cry.”
French President Mr Macron has faced sustained criticism over the sluggish pace of France’s vaccine rollout.
Last week figures published on the Our World In Data website suggested just 0.6 people per 100 had been received their jabs, just over a tenth of the figure in England – 5.6.
At the time, Dr Joseph Downing, an LSE Fellow in Nationalism at the LSE’s European Institute, told Express.co.uk: “With the vaccine rollout, on a Europe-wide level they are somewhere near the bottom in terms of the number of people vaccinated – it’s ridiculous.
“Even ex-eastern bloc countries like Poland have vaccinated a lot of people.”
“It staggers me, I don’t have an answer. You can blame bureaucracy but he is the executive so it is not as if he cannot put measures in.
“It is not as if this no surprise. All democratic leaders can write off their failures in the early stages of the pandemic to shock, didn’t see this coming etc. It is a reasonable excuse.
“But we have known this was coming for six to nine months, with the vaccine.
“I am shocked – I cannot believe that we are seeing such a failure. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega)
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