Disneyland Paris to host mass Covid-19 vaccination site

Disneyland Paris, Europe's biggest tourist attraction, will from Saturday host a mass Covid vaccination site at its convention centre as France seeks to speed up its inoculation drive. The site will be open weekends only.

The amusement park east of the capital -- considered a non-essential business -- has been closed since 30 October, the beginning of a second lockdown amid a surge in Covid-19 infections, putting its 17,000 employees out of work.

It had originally planned to re-admit visitors on 2 April, but worsening conditions forced it to postpone.

The vaccination site will be housed outside the amusement park proper at its Newport Bay Club, a convention centre near its hotel complex.

It will be run by local authorities and the regional ARS health service, and will be open weekends only, whereas other French vaccination sites often close on Sunday.

The goal is to give shots to at least 1,000 people a day, as France aims to get at least one jab to 20 million people by mid-May.

As of Tuesday, France had given at least one dose to nearly 12.8 million people, or 19 percent of its population, according to health ministry data.

"Disneyland Paris is proud to help support the authorities to administer vaccines," the park's vice president of operations, Eric Marion, said in a statement.

Announced on 25 March after the government's decision to deploy 35 giant vaccination centres across the country, such as at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis near Paris, the installation of the vaccination centre, initially scheduled for the first half of April, took a few more weeks to be set up.

Last weekend, the massive vaccination centre in Nice, southern France, closed on Sunday due to a lack of volunteers.

(with newswires)