France has given first Covid shots to nearly all retirement care home residents

PARIS: France has given a first Covid-19 vaccination to virtually 100% of retirement care home residents and three quarters have received two shots, health minister Olivier Veran said on Friday.
During a visit to a vaccination centre in southern France, Veran also told reporters that more than two thirds of all health staff and 80% of health staff above 50 had received at least a first dose.
France's focus on care home residents has led to a sharp drop in deaths.
At the start of the vaccination drive in late December-early January, France was registering about 700 deaths per week in retirement homes, accounting for nearly a third of all weekly deaths nationwide.
By early March, that number had dropped to around 300, by end-March to 80 and last week France reported fewer than 50 deaths in retirement homes.
On Thursday, as France's Covid death toll crossed 100,000, the seven-day moving average of Covid deaths stood at nearly 300 per day, with the average of retirement home deaths among those at just seven.
Veran also told reporters that with still some 35,000 new Covid-19 cases per day in France, it was too soon to consider easing restrictions on people's movements and he reiterated that there were no plans for now to lift a curfew that has been in place since mid-December.