French vaccines chief says AstraZeneca COVID vaccine shows great efficacy

A health worker administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a vaccination center inside a gymnasium in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 12, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

French vaccination chief Alain Fischer said on Friday the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine had shown great efficacy, reaffirming France's commitment to an inoculation which has been suspended in several other countries.

Speaking on Radio Classique, he also welcomed the approval by European Union health authorities of the COVID vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, saying it would not be available in France before next month.

A health worker speaks with a couple as they wait to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a vaccination center inside a gymnasium in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 12, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Edmund Blair)

A woman waits to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a vaccination center inside a gymnasium in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 12, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

A view shows a certificate of COVID-19 vaccination in a vaccination center inside a gymnasium in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 12, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

FILE PHOTO: A nurses fills a syringe with a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination center in La Baule, France, February 17, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe