Who will be the first patients to be vaccinated and when? Impossible to answer at the moment with precision. As if it were a state secret. The only certainty: even the most important stakeholders do not seem very conscious, which can seem worrying at first glance …
Last week, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced in a press release that the vaccination campaign was gradually launched in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The first vaccinations will be performed on Monday 28 December at the long-term care unit at Garraud Hospital in Lyon. The first phase of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 will be deployed from 4 January 2021 in the 12 departments in the region ”.
On Thursday 31 December, very little information was filtered about the first vaccinations in the Loire, and in the absence of Monday, it is rumored that the vaccination could begin on Tuesday 5 January. We have since known that this date will not be valid. We are now talking about the week of January 11, without security.
Current vaccine deliveries according to ARS
Three nursing homes, with different statuses, would be affected by the launch of the vaccination campaign: a public hospital facility; a private nonprofit business and a private for-profit establishment.
According to our information, in the first case it may be the long-term care unit of the CHU de Bellevue in Saint-Étienne, and in a second the mutual benefit accommodation of Bellevue, also in Saint-Étienne, managed by the French mutual insurance company Loire Haute-Loire Puy-de -Dome. On the other hand, nothing filtered on the lucrative private establishment. When asked by Le Progrès, ARS simply replied that “deliveries of vaccine doses were underway”.
“The pressure to vaccinate health professionals over the age of 50”
Jean-François Janowiak President of the Order of Physicians of the Loire
“You have to be careful, because everything changes from hour to hour. The original calendar for the Loire, created at the end of December, required a meeting on January 8 for the establishment of the operational department vaccination unit, which must manage the distribution of vaccination points in our department. The arrival of the first vaccines was announced around 11 and 12 January for members and staff at nursing homes.
Following the announcement from the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who wants an acceleration of the vaccination campaign in favor of carers over the age of 50 (by having them vaccinated from Monday 4 January, editor’s note), it will undoubtedly change. We should be fixed by the middle of next week.
As President of the Order of Doctors of the Loire, I urge the local authorities (ARS and CHU) to organize these vaccination centers for healthcare professionals over 50 as soon as possible. . I hope that the Loire, which is unfortunately among the departments most affected by the pandemic, will be among the first to be concerned about the acceleration of the vaccination campaign.
More generally, I believe that we must move forward on two fronts: on the one hand, program a vaccination campaign, on the other hand, let all those who want to be vaccinated do so ”.
Collected by Marie PERRIN