Macron: third anti-Covid vaccination for weak and elderly after summer break 'necessary"

French President Emmanuel Macron said on his Instagram account on Thursday that it was likely that the elderly and vulnerable would need a third COVID-19 vaccine shot, and that France was working on rolling these out from September onwards.

In a new video posted on social networks, Emmanuel Macron said that a third dose of the vaccine would be "necessary ... at least for the elderly and most fragile."

"We are preparing, like other European countries, to do this third dose for people who are the oldest and most fragile. We will do it from the start of the school year," he said.

Number of tests rising
Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19, RT-PCR or antigenic tests massively increased last week with more than 4 million tests carried out, surpassing the peaks during the Christmas 2020 period and the third wave in April, according to official statistics.

"Between July 26 and August 1, 2021, 4,118,800 RT-PCR and antigenic tests were validated (including 54.9% antigenic tests), against 3,607,400 (including 52.4% antigenic tests) in the previous week, an increase of 511,300 tests of SARS-CoV-2. This is linked to the gradual deployment of the health pass", according to a statement by the Directorate of research, studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees).

Antibodies
"We must listen to scientists first of all," says Emmanuel Macron in his instagram video.

Explaining how vaccination works, the he pointed out the advantage of the vaccine: "When we have had the virus (...) or when we are vaccinated, we develop antibodies that allow us to resist the virus. This means that we hardly catch - or in any case, much less -, we spread it less and we don't suffer from serious effects. "

He then justified a third dose for "the oldest and most fragile" people because "when you are older or more fragile, you will lose [antibodies] quicker".

The amount of new cases has been gradually climbing over the past weeks, with 28,784 people testing positive on August 4, almost 2,000 more than the day before and a staggering 20,000 more than a short dip in numbers in the middle of June.