As France s vaccination rate trails slightly behind even the EU s rather modest average, the government has decided to accelerate its vaccination drive. Although the health minister was initially opposed to the new vaccination points, now he thinks they are the best solution to speed up the administering of jabs. Going forward, vaccination will be continuous, allowing the country to catch up, the president has said.

Latest figures show that France has inoculated 9.3 per cent of its population, which falls below the EU average, placing it mid-field in the bloc in terms of vaccination rate. Malta is leading with 23.9 per cent, followed by Hungary in the second place with 16.9 per cent and Finland in the third spot with 13.2 per cent.

According to data from the French Health Ministry, France has received a total of 10 838 940 vaccine doses so far. Six and a half million people have been given a first dose while two and a half million have been inoculated with a second shot.

However, President Macron has called for a swifter vaccine rollout. He said there are no weekends and holidays in this battle, adding that from now on vaccines will be offered non-stop to the population, even late at night. The government aims to have 10 million people vaccinated with a first dose by mid-April.

According to information obtained by Le Figaro, the country s leaders were initially opposed to setting up large vaccination centres, but they appear to have changed their mind. In the coming days, health authorities will establish 35 large centres, expected to inoculate 1000-2000 people a day. The goal is to have at least one vaccination centre in every département soon, in an effort to step up the country s mass vaccination campaign.

Health Minister Olivier Veran confirmed the plan in an announcement during his visit to Essonne département. Mr Veran said mass vaccination will start in 35 large inoculation points in April.

According to press reports, several football stadiums will be turned into such centres. From next month, the Stade de France – the country s national stadium in Seine-Saint-Denis département, in the north of Paris – will also start operating as a vaccination hub.

Seine-Saint-Denis Mayor Mathieu Hanotin took to Twitter to announce that they already started recruiting a staff of around sixty people to help organise the vaccination at the Stade de France. The centre is scheduled to open on 6 April. According to BFMTV, some 10 thousand people a week are planned to be vaccinated at the stadium. It will be managed by a staff of 120 people, including firefighters and nurses.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin also spoke about the government s plans in an interview, saying the prospective vaccination centres are expected to administer the jab to some 500,000 people a week.

According to Le Figaro, the French government s initial reluctance to set up large vaccination centres comes as no surprise, as they already applied this method in 2009, during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. They converted gyms into temporary vaccination hubs, but eventually the initiative has failed. The centres have managed to inoculate a total of 5.35 million people, only 8.23 per cent of the population, but the costs have spiralled out of control as the government spent nearly 1.5 billion euros on the project.

Health Minister Olivier Veran acknowledged at the end of last year that there had been attempts to set up vaccination centres in France, but that did not work. Now, however, it appears that the French government will have no choice but to implement that plan to eliminate the country s disadvantage in terms of its mass vaccination rate.