French President Emmanuel Macron has admitted the failures in the country’s vaccination campaign and vowed to accelerate the rollout days after the government was forced to impose new coronavirus restrictions to limit a wave of Covid-19 engulfing the country .
“We weren’t fast enough, strong enough,” Macron told Greek television channel ERT on Wednesday, in a rare admission of failure regarding Europe’s vaccination efforts.
“We haven’t shot the stars as often as others. I think that should be a lesson for all of us. We were wrong to miss ambition, to miss the madness, to say, ‘It’s possible, let’s do it,’ ”said Macron.
“You can give that to the Americans, already in the summer of 2020 they said: let’s pull out all the stops and do it. They had more ambition than us, ”he said in the interview,“ we didn’tI do not think so [the production of a vaccine] would happen so soon. “
He added, “Everyone, 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” and pledged to make the rollout central to the country’s fight against Covid-19.
According to Our World in Data, 9.3% of the total French population had been partially vaccinated on Monday.
Last week, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced new coronavirus restrictions in 16 regions, including the greater areas of Paris and Nice, as the country seeks 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 Covid-19 outbreak in the country, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told CNN on Thursday.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told police chiefs on Wednesday that he was “strict” with the rule of six, particularly in the 16 regions under lockdown lite, the spokeswoman said.
The new measures, which took effect on Friday at midnight, will last at least four weeks, but are less restrictive than the measures imposed in March and November last year.