After gasoline, France now faces shortage of medicines

After the bottlenecks at the gas stations, France now also faces a shortage of medicines.

The supply of drugs Doliprane and Efferalgan has been strained since July, but a winter wave of illness is just around the corner that could exacerbate the problem further.

Citing a communication from the National Agency for Safety of Medicines (ANSM), Daily Le Parisien reported that health professionals are to prescribe fewer of these drugs.

Pharmacists are to "limit dispensing to two boxes per patient" when there is no prescription. And they are to "prioritize dispensing by prescription" and, finally, limit online sales of Paracetamol.

Doctors are also asked in the ANSM memo not to prescribe the painkiller Paracetamol to patients "who do not have an immediate need for it."

As of Thursday, more than 63,000 new cases of COVID-19 were counted in France, according to Public Health France.

While these numbers are far from the peaks reached at the height of the pandemic, they show that the virus is still around.