(Adds detail and background)
PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron
said on his Instagram account on Thursday that it was likely
that the elderly and vulnerable would need a third COVID-19
vaccine shot, and that France was working on rolling these out
from September onwards.
"A third dose will likely be necessary, not for everyone
straightaway, but in any case for the most vulnerable and the
most elderly," said Macron.
Macron's government is trying to step up France's COVID
vaccination programme again, as the country faces a fourth wave
of the virus and street demonstrations in protest against the
government's COVID policies.
The World Health Organization's head Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus called on Wednesday for a halt on COVID-19 vaccine
boosters until at least the end of September.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Nicolas Delame; Editing by
Toby Chopra)