Since Wednesday, cultural and leisure venues bringing together more than 50 people must require the health pass for their public.

To avoid this measure, some cinemas have decided to lower their gauge to 49 spectators at most.

But in reality, this does not protect them from possible sanctions.

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At the heart of heated debates in the National Assembly, the health pass is already a reality for places of culture and leisure that bring together more than 50 people.

To get around the measure, some cinemas have seen fit to lower their gauge to 49 spectators.

But can cinemas and theaters really reduce their tonnage so as not to be subject to the health pass?

Asked by the media BFMTV, the General Directorate of Health (DGS) replied in the negative to this question on Thursday.

Institutions that choose this option are therefore liable to sanctions.

"The sanitary pass applies from the moment this room contains more than 50 seats"

Indeed, this limit of 50 people is not linked to the number of spectators present, but to the capacity, to the number of places, of the hall.

"The 50-person gauge, retained as the threshold for applying the health pass in certain Establishments open to the public (ERP), is determined according to the reception capacity of this ERP and not according to the actual occupancy of the premises. ", the DGS told BFMTV.

"For example in a movie theater, the sanitary pass applies from the moment this room contains more than 50 seats, even if only 10 seats are occupied during a screening", summarizes the DGS.

"The 10 people present must therefore have a valid health pass."

Cinemas had introduced reduced gauges

So far, in some rooms, however, there had been no debates. It is out of the question to control spectators at the entrance for their manager. In a theater in Toulouse, we regretted a measure "which, politically, has a profound meaning". "What we are being asked here is not something technical (...) In a democracy, it seems to us that we have to take the time to talk about it. It cannot be a waste of time and it has absolutely nothing to do with opposition 'for or against' the vaccine. " Financially, this Toulouse theater claimed to be able to hold out all summer, a rather calm period, with this gauge reduced to 49 spectators.

He will have to review his copy. Because the rooms which continue to circumvent the rule risk sanctions. "It is not possible for a room having a capacity of more than 50 people to lower its gauge, under penalty of sanction for non-application of the sanitary pass", underlined the DGS to BFMTV.