Coronavirus: French minister defends slow start to COVID-19 vaccination campaign

France will not fail in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, its European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on Thursday, after coming under fire for the slow start of its roll-out compared with its European neighbors.

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Beaune told France’s LCI television that the vaccination campaign was just beginning in the country.

France, which is primarily targeting the most vulnerable people in nursing homes for the first phase of the campaign, administered doses to about 140 people on Wednesday.

Read more: Coronavirus: France confirms first case on its soil of British COVID-19 variant

That was well below the 42,000 who received shots in Germany, for instance.

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