To get vaccinated at the pop-up at Luxembourg City's train station on Monday morning one had to be rather patient. (Photo: Maison Moderne)

To get vaccinated at the pop-up at Luxembourg City's train station on Monday morning one had to be rather patient. (Photo: Maison Moderne)

With up to two hours of waiting for a vaccine at the Luxembourg City's pop-up station, long queues at pharmacies and full appointment slots, Monday morning, the first business day under CovidCheck at work, was as busy as they come.

Queues formed in front of pharmacies across the country on the morning of Monday 17 January. An increased demand for covid testing due to the first working day of CovidCheck at work. “It's a rush,” confirms Sandes working at Pharmacie du Globe in Luxembourg City, from the small tent on the sidewalk where samples are taken without an appointment. “Many of them anticipated the rush and were there very early, others arrived later in the morning because their employer had sent them," she says.

At 8am, the queue stretched for about 60 metres, all the way to the BGL BNP Paribas bank in the Gare district. The pharmacy carried out more than a hundred tests in one morning, including about ten PCR tests, the others being certified rapid antigen tests. It expects a new peak at the end of the day, even if this is not a record for the establishment, which carries out an average of between 300 and 400 tests per day.

Between tests and teleworking

However, the situation had calmed down a little during the lunch break. Just under a dozen people were queuing on the pavement. One of them was Nermin, a law professor in France who has been working for several months in Luxembourg, providing legal advice. “I have flexible hours so I can organise myself,” he explains. He has managed to stay at home three days a week since CovidCheck came into force on 15 January, which saves him a few daily tests. “I think what's going on here is a totalitarian system,” says Nermin. He explains he's “not worried about the test budget, but I know a lot of people for whom it is a problem”.

In front, Julie (whose name was changed for this article) is waiting for her result. “It's a routine”, says this employee of a public administration where CovidCheck has been applied since last November. She has managed to reach an agreement with her employer to telework three days a week, which allows her to get by with two tests a week. She takes them the day before having to be at the office, during her lunch break. “It has happened that I have to wait for three hours in the cold, I won't do that again.” Even if the situation continues and her employer no longer allows her to telework, “I won't give in to the vaccine, there are far too many side effects,” she says. Next to her, Clément has just received his certificate, which will allow him to travel to Portugal. Even though he is vaccinated, he needs a negative test result to travel abroad for his work once a week. He took advantage of the quiet lunchtime to carry it out.

A few tests between two appointments

For his part, Olivier chose the €15 test centre at the Place du Théâtre. “I'm doing my test for this afternoon and tomorrow morning,” he explains. His company has been using CovidCheck since Saturday. “We'll have to make do,” he said, before returning to work.

There are no queues in front of the Hamilius pharmacy, as it only takes patients by appointment. But “it's full for the day”, says pharmacist Jeremy Parofrio. This is not unusual, as demand has been high since last November, with a slight lull during the holiday season. Only, since the compulsory introduction of the CovidCheck regime at work, the pharmacy has been seeing walk-in test requests, about 15 in one morning. “We've managed to take them in between patients by organising ourselves,” the pharmacy can do about 60 certified rapid antigen tests a day.

Vaccination, reluctantly...

The pop-up at Luxembourg City's railway station was also crowded. Some arrived early, even though the injections take place between 10am and 4pm. And rightly so, since “in the morning, we had peaks of two hours of waiting”. The nurses have hardly had any time to rest, one patient following another.

The wait is serene, under the eyes of the LFC security staff. But the atmosphere was gloomy. Most have indeed come backwards.

“Yes, I'm here very reluctantly, for my second injection,” says Patricia (whose name was changed for this article). She is not anti-vaccine, nor does she have any fears, but “I don't see the point of all this. There will be other variants. Wouldn't it be better to let the epidemic go? At some point, it will have to stop, we're not going to be vaccinated and re-vaccinated until the end of time.”

For Michel (whose name changed for this article), a cross-border worker, it is the CovidCheck at work that forces him to be vaccinated. “We are sheep”, says Michel, who has been waiting for more than 45 minutes. “We let them do it without saying anything, without doing anything...”. He too comes for a second dose, as a matter of urgency. “I didn't think I'd reached the deadline, but I was turned away from a catering establishment last weekend. I can't make an appointment, it's full, so I have to come here.”

His anger is directed at the experts and the government. “If we are sheep, they also take us for donkeys. We were told that one dose would be enough. Then two, then three... There's a limit. So they put us up against the wall and force us to be vaccinated. We are not in a dictatorship here, are we? It seems so...”

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.