In Corsica, after a family dinner or a day’s work, they chose to be vaccinated against Covid at night, on the outskirts of Ajaccio, in the first center of France operating 24 hours a day.
In Sarrola-Carcopino, in a small shopping area less than 10 kilometers from the center of Ajaccio, five friends are playing cards in the only café open this Saturday evening. But another establishment is preparing to keep its doors open all night: a newly installed vaccination center on the premises of SOS Médecins.
“It was the fact that it was at night that decided me. I said to myself + come on! +”, Confides to AFP Sabri Paoletti, 34, driver for a large food delivery company, arrived at 10 p.m., without an appointment, to receive his first dose.
On this first night, the crowd is limited: six people showed up between 9 p.m. and midnight, noted an AFP journalist. The neighboring nursing practice, a test center, was not empty until it closed at 10 p.m.
“It’s the ones who go out and aren’t vaccinated,” says Vannina Peretti, the vaccination center’s nurse.
Like Océane Mazoyon, 23, customer advisor at a car dealership, who explains doing a test to be able to go Sunday “to an escape game with friends”. “You need the pass and I’m not vaccinated,” she says, ensuring “not having confidence” in the vaccine.
With this new place of vaccination operating 24 hours a day Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for five weeks, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) however hopes “to accelerate the vaccine booster campaign”. Corsica is today the least vaccinated region in mainland France.
As of January 2, 73.7% of those over 12 had a complete vaccination schedule on the island against 89.8% in mainland France, according to the ARS.
– “Red lantern” –
“We are the red lantern”, regrets Alexandre Sarrola, mayor of Sarrola-Carcopino, who supported the opening of the center to “allow all sections of the population to be vaccinated at any time of the day and night” .
For Sabri Paoletti, these night hours are “very accommodating”: “I am not at all anti-tax, I have not done it until now because I was a little lazy but hey, as everything will go through the pass, it was necessary to pass there “.
“People work shiftedly, we are in semi-rural areas, many leave early in the morning to work, we at SOS Médecins take care of people 24 hours a day so we said to ourselves why not offer 24 hour vaccination. “, explains to AFP Dr Camille Sciarli, 36, one of the two doctors to run the center on Saturday with a nurse and a coordinator.
Chloé Crouzet, a 22-year-old hairdresser, arrives, stressed, for her third dose. She came at 10:30 p.m. saying to herself “there weren’t going to be a crowd” and that she had “nothing to do afterwards, except sleep”.
Shortly after midnight, a couple show up for a third dose: “My mother drank me the whole meal,” says Marvin Goreeba, 26, a real estate agent who stopped by after a dinner at the house. his parents.
“A lot of people are sick and my grandfather died of it, frankly you have to be vaccinated so I do it”, assures AFP his companion, Eva Relancio, trainee notary of 24 years. She finds “brilliant” these staggered schedules allowing “to do it on a whim”.
For Dr. Andrea Pittilloni, 32, second doctor at the center, the results of the day are honorable with “120 vaccinated since 8:00 am this morning, including ten first-time vaccines”. The ARS hopes there “at least 1,000 vaccinations each week”. “We touched young people this evening”, welcomes Antoine Ottavi, president of SOS Médecins Ajaccio.
In total, 349 people have died since the start of the epidemic in hospital and in accommodation facilities for dependent elderly people (Ephad) across this island of 340,000 inhabitants, according to the latest report from the ARS on Thursday.