French velodrome becomes mass vaccination centre

After a sluggish start, France has begun ramping up its vaccination campaign, converting sports arenas and other venues into mass vaccination centres, including the National Velodrome west of Paris which is set to host medal events at the Paris Olympics in 2024. The arena where the national track cycling team trains is welcoming hundreds of people each day who come for jabs.

They get their injections in the central area inside the cycling track, while a counter keeps track of the number of vaccinations there so far. On Wednesday more than 16,800 received a dose. France plans to open as many as 200 of these so-called "mega-centres" for vaccinations.

The Health Ministry says that together, the centres will administer as many as 1 million jabs per week, some of them set up with help from the French military and fire services. The Health Ministry says each French department will get 1 or 2 of the mass vaccination centres, each able to inject 1,000 to 2,000 jabs per day.

The centres will contribute to what is expected to be a major ramping up of France's vaccination campaign in the coming two weeks, largely using Pfizer doses. The Health Ministry says the campaign should reach a cruising speed by April of nearly 2 million doses injected per week.