France opens 1st drive-in vaccination center

A drive-in vaccination center was opened on Tuesday in southern France to further ramp up vaccination pace and counter accelerating COVID-19 spread, reported Xinhua, quoting local media.

"The idea is to offer an additional means of getting vaccinated," Alexandre Pascal, delegate of Regional Health Agency of Occitanie was quoted by Franceinfo radio as saying.

The country's first "vaccidrive" is implemented in a clinic's emergency parking in Saint-Jean-de-Vedas, on the outskirts of Montpellier. It proposes to vaccinate people as they remain seated in their own car.

Data from Health Ministry showed that 11 million French people have got their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, representing 21 percent of the adult population and 3.8 million have completed their inoculation.

In a bid to start easing restrictions by mid-May, the French government pledged to go all out on vaccine rollout to bring down the coronavirus-linked infections and deaths.

With the aim, it plans to open about 40 mass vaccination centers this month, and allows shots to be administrated in doctors' offices and pharmacies.

On Monday, the country's health authorities extended the vaccination with AstraZeneca jabs to all people older than 55 and without comorbidity. Shots of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna will be available to all people aged 60 and over from April 16.

Since the epidemic outbreak, 99,135 people with COVID-19 have died and more than 5 million cases have been confirmed in France, showed official data released on Monday.

The number of COVID-19 patients who required life support rose by 78 to 5,916, above the peak of 4,919 reported in November 2020, when the country went into the second lockdown to contain the epidemic.