{"id":199946,"date":"2021-03-12T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T21:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/france-sees-no-need-to-suspend-astrazeneca-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T00:00:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T21:00:01","slug":"france-sees-no-need-to-suspend-astrazeneca-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/france-sees-no-need-to-suspend-astrazeneca-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"#France sees ‘no need’ to suspend AstraZeneca vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#France sees ‘no need’ to suspend AstraZeneca vaccine<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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France will continue to use AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine, the health minister said Thursday after several European nations halted its use due to concerns over blood clots.\n <\/p>\n

Denmark, Iceland and Norway suspended AstraZeneca vaccinations and Italy halted a batch of the jabs, but Olivier Veran said France’s medicines agency had advised him against similar action.<\/p>\n

It had urged him to follow the EU drug regulator’s ruling that AstraZeneca was still safe to use.<\/p>\n

“There is no need to suspend AstraZeneca,” Veran told a news<\/a> conference. “The upside of vaccinations at this stage outweighs the risks.”<\/p>\n

France is scrambling to boost its vaccination rollout in the hope of avoiding a third lockdown.<\/p>\n

Veran said the daily average of new infections app<\/a>eared stable for France as a whole, but added the figure hid huge regional disparities.<\/p>\n

The Ile de France, which includes Paris, the northern region of Hauts de France and the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur were the main hotspots, he said.<\/p>\n

Daily numbers of admissions into intensive care in the Paris region were now so high that hospital capacity risks being overrun.<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 patients are now in intensive care in the region, a number that could reach 1,500 by the end of March\u2014a “critical level”\u2014and very close to the worst numbers seen during the second wave of COVID, Veran said.<\/p>\n

Authorities were therefore preparing to evacuate “dozens or even hundreds” of intensive care patients away from the capital and its suburbs to other regions.<\/p>\n

Nationwide there were now more than 4,000 people in intensive care, up from 3,555 at the start of the month.<\/p>\n

“The situation is tense and worrying,” Veran said. “We do not know when the worst will be over, or how bad it will get.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the health ministry said nearly 20,000 pharmacies would join the vaccination drive.<\/p>\n

The fire service and the army are also being drafted in larger numbers to help following a call from Prime Minister Jean Castex for “national mobilisation”.<\/p>\n

France lags behind major European neighbours for shots administered due to a shortage of doses amid complaints about bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had come into contact with an infected person, his ministry announced, meaning he would self-isolate for the next week.<\/p>\n

He met counterparts from Germany, Egypt and Jordan on Thursday and held talks with US climate change emissary John Kerry on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Also Thursday, France eased travel<\/a> restrictions for seven countries outside the European Union.<\/p>\n

The government had from January 31 banned all travel outside the EU without a valid excuse.<\/p>\n

But due to the changing pandemic situation, “it will no longer be necessary to prove a compelling reason for travel to or from Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom,” the foreign ministry said.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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\n France sees ‘no need’ to suspend AstraZeneca vaccine (2021, March 11)
\n retrieved 11 March 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-03-france-astrazeneca-vaccine.html<\/p>\n

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