France’s booster dose campaign will be expanded to all fully-vaccinated people aged 18 and over, Health Minister Olivier Véran announced yesterday afternoon (November 25).
This comes as Covid cases are rising. The latest figures show that there were 33,464 cases recorded in the previous 24 hours on November 25.
Previously, only people aged 65 and over or with health conditions that made them vulnerable to serious forms of the virus were eligible for booster doses, but plans were already underway to expand this to people aged 50 and over.
Now, all adults will be able to get booster doses five months after receiving their previous dose, or having been infected with Covid-19.
From January 15, people aged 18-64 who have not had a booster dose will not be able to use their health pass until they get the dose.
The booster dose campaign will open to the wider public in France on November 27, making some 19 million people immediately eligible.
To be eligible for a booster dose on November 27 you must be:
over 18
fully vaccinated, with the last dose having been given at least five months ago
fully vaccinated, and with no instances of having been infected by Covid-19 in the past five months
Just over five million people in France have already received booster doses in the past six months.
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Following Mr Véran’s announcement yesterday, 1.2 million appointments for booster doses were reserved on the site Doctolib on the same day.
By the evening, people were having to wait 30 minutes to access the booking service due to the volume of demand for appointments. This morning, the wait had gone down to 20 minutes.
General director Santé publique France, Geneviève Chêne, said during a press conference that, facing a fifth wave of the virus in France: “We must raise immunity as much as possible, through people getting first doses of the vaccine and also booster doses.”
