France hits target of 50% population with first Covid shot: Too slow, say experts

Fifty percent of French people have now received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine. However, the Pasteur Institute in Paris has warned that the current rate of vaccination is not sufficient to prevent a fourth wave of the epidemic this autumn.

© REUTERS - Stéphane Mahé

As the symbolic milestone of half the French population, nearly 34 million individuals, with at least one injection is reached, the health ministry and the Pasteur Institute have both warned that the current rate of vaccination is too slow to prevent a fourth wave of the disease later this year.

Official statistics show that nearly five million French people over the age of 55 have yet to receive their first jab. 

And about 100,000 appointments in vaccination centres are not being taken up every day, a figure that has been stable over the past week. The health ministry says the system is working far below potential, and that the race to contain the highly contagious Delta variant is far from won.

"The vaccination rate is still increasing," says Health Minister Olivier Véran, "but not fast enough."

Vaccination resistance a major problem

The Delta variant, first identified in India, currently accounts for 20 percent of French infections. The European Centre for Disease Control warns that that figure will have risen to 90 percent by the end of August.

The Pasteur Institute study warns that, in addition to the danger of a resurgence posed by the virus variants, there is also the problem of vaccination resistance as a significant proportion of people continue to hesitate about inoculation.

In the worst-case scenario presented by the Paris institute's study, France could see hospital admissions reach 2,500 every day this autumn, a figure comparable with the situation at the same time last year.

Once again, the non-vaccinated over the age of 60 will account for the majority of hospitalisations. And the epidemic will be driven by the unvaccinated under-18s, themselves largely unaffected by serious symptoms but responsible for 50 percent of infections.