Covid-19: the government evokes the imminent end of the vaccination pass

Europe 1 with AFP 10:44 p.m., February 09, 2022

Is France getting closer, after other countries, to the lifting of the vaccination pass?

The government is considering it for the end of March or the beginning of April, when a new round of anti-Covid restrictions must already disappear in a week.

After Israel, England, Denmark, which have removed their vaccination or health pass, France could in turn give up this contested device.

Lifting of the pass by the end of March? 

The government's "Mister vaccine", Alain Fischer, set the tone late Wednesday morning before a Senate inquiry committee.

A lifting of the vaccination pass is possible "by the end of March" or the beginning of "April", estimated Mr. Fischer.

If, and only if, several conditions are present: an incidence rate "10 or 20 times lower" than currently, the end of hospital overload and a very high proportion of vaccinated.

The executive took over immediately.

"There are reasons to hope that by this time horizon the situation will have improved sufficiently for us to be able to lift these final measures", added government spokesman Gabriel Attal, interviewed at resulting from the Council of Ministers following a health defense council.

Already, just a week ago, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran affirmed that "the worst is behind us" for this fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic and considered it probable that the vaccine pass would be lifted before July.

In the eyes of the authorities, the threat due to the Omicron variant, less dangerous than its predecessors although clearly more contagious, is receding.

The surge of contamination linked to Omicron has decreased significantly since the end of January.

"The frank drop, we are there", underlined Gabriel Attal, "but let's be careful not to boast".

For critical care admissions (296 Wednesday) and deaths (255 in hospital Wednesday), the waves remain high, however.

The vaccine pass will be lifted "as soon as (...) there will no longer be a hospital under very high tension due to the Covid", declared Gabriel Attal.

But until then, the rules for keeping your vaccination pass will change next Tuesday.

An anti-pass convoy 

Between 4 and 5 million French adults could lose their sesame if they have not received a booster dose by then, or if they have not been infected after two doses, according to estimates by health authorities.

Suddenly, "we think that several million people will want to be vaccinated next weekend," said a government source on Wednesday.

Opponents of the vaccine pass remain mobilized.

Thousands of them have thus announced on social networks that they want to "drive on Paris" as part of "freedom convoys", inspired by the Canadian truckers who block the center of Ottawa.

They plan to reach Paris on Friday evening and some then call to join Brussels for a "European convergence" on Monday February 14.

Apart from the pass, a second stage of lifting restrictions remains scheduled for next Wednesday.

Discotheques, closed since December 10, will be able to reopen, standing concerts will again be authorized.

Consumption at the counter will also be possible in bars.

Like consumption in stadiums, cinemas and transport.

Announcements by the end of the week

For schools, a new reduction in the health protocol is being prepared, for February 21, the date of the return from vacation in the first zone.

Fewer self-tests, end of the mask outdoors, end of sworn certificates for negative tests are in the tracks.

Unions echoed this after a meeting on Tuesday with the Ministries of Education and Health and the High Council for Public Health.

"There will be announcements by the end of the week, I hope from Friday," said Gabriel Attal after the Council of Ministers.

Almost two years after the start of the epidemic and two months before the presidential election, the government says it is regularly aware of the "weariness" of the French in the face of the crisis and the restrictions.

Claiming that France is "probably one of the countries in Europe which has taken the least restrictive measures", the government spokesperson also declared that, "as everywhere in the world, political movements, often radical, sought to capitalize on this weariness".