France’s Covid vaccine booking system to be improved
There have been issues with online platforms crashing and people only being able to get appointments in two months' time
The system for booking Covid vaccination appointments will be improved, France’s health minister Olivier Véran said this morning (January 19).
He said that anyone who wants an appointment will be able to get one.
He also said a waiting list system will be set up this week.
“When you are in telephone contact with a [vaccination] centre or when you go to the website but you cannot find a slot available, we will register your contact details and we will call you back when slots are available for vaccination," Mr Véran told radio network France Inter
"There will be no need to call back.”
Some people trying to book a Covid-19 vaccination appointment in France have reported waits of up to two months to find an available slot, as many departments have become overloaded with bookings.
Covid France: Vaccination wait times reach up to 2 months
Others have experienced issues with online booking platforms.
The platforms, including private sites Doctolib.fr, Maiia and Keldoc and government information site sante.fr, have been running slowly due to a saturation of users.
Mr Véran said that half a million more appointment slots would become available in the coming days.
“This morning, there are 140,000 vaccination appointment slots available across France, that’s not many,” he said.
“But 300 centres, which until now were not able to give appointments to the general public, will do so in the coming days, freeing up 500,000 slots.”
He said of the vaccination campaign that “things were put in place very quickly” but he hopes that from now the government will be able to make things “more comfortable” for people wishing to book vaccine appointments.
Over two million appointments will have been made by the end of today, he said.
He said that the government planned to publish the number of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine available in each vaccination centre.
Read more:
Over 1 million Covid jabs booked in France in one day
Easy-look timeline of France’s Covid vaccine rollout
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