"We want it to be simple. The emergency is to vaccinate those most at risk," he told Europe 1 radio station.
Around 4 million people who could be prone to more severe forms of the coronavirus are expected to benefit from the move, which came into force on Saturday.
"I could have asked these four million adults with chronic illnesses to go to their doctors – bottling up doctors' offices in the middle of an epidemic wave – so that they can get a certificate proving they the illnesses," he said. "But we made the choice of common sense.”
Deaths
More than 105,000 people have died from the coronavirus in France since January 2020.
The vaccination programme to stem the spread of the disease was widely lambasted at the start. But French health authorities report more than 16 million people have now received their first jab with nearly seven million of them getting the second.
"The time will come for the entire population to be vaccinated," Véran said. "People have been extraordinarily patient since the beginning of the epidemic with all the restrictions and the lack of vaccines.”
