French President Emmanuel Macron has admitted failures in the country’s vaccination campaign and vowed to speed up deployment, days after the government was forced to impose new coronavirus restrictions to contain a wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country .
“We weren’t fast enough, strong enough,” Macron told Greek television channel ERT on Wednesday, in a rare admission of failure on Europe’s vaccination efforts.
“We did not shoot at the stars as much as others. I think this should be a lesson for all of us. We were wrong for lack of ambition, for lack of madness, to say, “It’s possible, let’s do it,” Macron said.
“You can give this to the Americans, as early as the summer of 2020 they said, ‘We take all the stops and we do it. They had more ambition than us,'” he said in the interview.‘I do not think so [the production of a vaccine] it would happen so quickly “.
He added: “All the experts said, ‘Never in the history of mankind has a vaccine been developed in less than a year.’
On Tuesday, the French president declared the vaccination campaign a “national priority”, promising to place the launch at the center of the country’s Covid-19 battle.
As of Monday, 9.3% of the total French population had been partially vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
Last week, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced new coronavirus restrictions in 16 regions, including the Paris and Nice areas, as the country tries to contain a third wave of infections.
Outdoor social gatherings of more than six people are now illegal in France as part of efforts to contain the country’s Covid-19 outbreak, a ministry ministry spokeswoman told CNN on Thursday. Interior.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday told police chiefs to be “strict” with the government of six, particularly in the 16 regions that are under closure, according to the spokeswoman.
The new measures, which went into effect Friday at midnight, will last at least four weeks, but are less restrictive than the measures imposed in March and November last year.