Mass staggered meetings. Regional health agencies (ARS) Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté announced on January 28 the postponement of all appointments for a first injection of the vaccine against covid-19. In question: the difficulties of supplying the doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

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Guarantee the second doses first

These vaccination postponements aim to “guarantee the administration of the second injection for all those who have already received the first dose in January “, indicates in particular the ARS of Hauts-de-France in a press release. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, spaced three to four weeks apart.

In this region, “all the first vaccination appointments (1st injection) scheduled until Tuesday February 2 inclusive will be deprogrammed and immediately rescheduled from the first week of March“, further specifies the ARS.

“No appointment canceled” in the East

In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, too, the ARS warns that “some appointments made in February for a first injection are likely to be postponed for a few days or weeks“.”No appointment will be canceled “, nevertheless assures the agency in a press release.

According to her, this “new regulation“appointment is due to”drop in Pfizer vaccine supplies this week that will extend into February“The agency promises to”maintain a high vaccination dynamic” thanks to “a new reception of more than 20,000 doses“of the Moderna vaccine, allocated preferentially to the eastern and south-eastern regions.

Maintain a “sustained pace” in Île-de-France

Finally, ARS Ile-de-France provides “the delay of 15,000 to 20,000 appointments“fixed for the week of February 8, which will be rescheduled”within the next 15 days at most“, so before the end of the month.

This should make it possible to “ensure completeness“of the approximately 200,000 second injections expected in February, while maintaining”a steady pace“for the first doses, with 127,000 inoculations.

2.4 million vaccines instead of four

In total, the Ministry of Health forecasts that 2.4 million injections of covid-19 vaccines will be given in February, including 1.4 million second doses for people vaccinated in January and one million new first injections. . Initially, the government announced that four million people would be vaccinated at the end of February.

The number of vaccinations could however soon be revised upwards, because a third vaccine, that of AstraZeneca has just been authorized on January 29 by the European Medicines Agency. But only 4.6 million doses of this vaccine will be delivered to France by the end of March, or half less than expected due to a drop in deliveries which concerns the whole of the European Union.