From August 9, and unless the Constitutional Council intervenes, the health pass will be compulsory to go to restaurants, cafes, or to take public transport over long distances.
Faced with this deadline, more and more French people are going to pharmacies to be vaccinated or screened.
REPORTAGE
As the application of the health pass approaches in restaurants, bars, cafes, trains and planes, pharmacies are stormed for screening tests. Because if the Constitutional Council does not censor the measure - the decision will not be rendered until Thursday - it is from Monday August 9 that access to these establishments and to public transport for long-distance journeys will be conditioned on the presentation of a health pass, whether it is a certificate of a complete vaccination schedule, a negative PCR or antigen test or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19. As a result, the French are jostling in pharmacies to be vaccinated or tested. During this holiday period, professionals talk about overheating.
In his pharmacy on rue de Lourmel, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, Laurent Halwani shows us on his screen the appointments made for screening tests.
Some days there is no more room.
"The antigenic tests, we do an average of 70 to 80 per day. We had to increase our workforce to meet the demand and better manage the crisis situation", he explains to Europe 1. Today there are six of them doing the tests and - when the demand arises - the vaccines.
>>
Find the morning show of the day in replay and podcast here
Up to 2 million pharmacy tests per week
What is happening in this Parisian pharmacy is not an isolated case: almost everywhere, pharmacies have been taken by storm since the announcement of the introduction of the health pass. And, as Philippe Besset, who chairs the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France, says, the pressure is mounting as August 9 approaches: "We were on a basis of about 600,000 tests per week in pharmacies. exceeded 1.5 million last week and we will be approaching 2 million this week. "
At the cost of adjusting their schedules, pharmacists think they can absorb this influx. In any case in the cities. But on the coast, that will be another matter. "On the holiday sites, the pharmacy network will not be enough: it will be necessary to set up barnums. The municipalities must organize themselves to offer an additional offer. We will not do it alone, that's clear" , points out Philippe Besset. In some pharmacies, it is the reinforcement of pharmacy students that makes it possible to cope with the influx. But the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France warns: "if it goes beyond the holidays, another solution will have to be found."