Bordeaux (AFP)

From Thursday, the Gironde department is experimenting with a "bracelet" serving as a health pass to facilitate entry into bars and restaurants.

In total, 20,000 bracelets will be made available to establishments in the most frequented tourist places of the Gironde, in particular in Bordeaux, in the Arcachon basin and in Saint-Emilion, according to the UMIH (Union des métiers et des industries de l'Hôtellerie) departmental, which has received the approval of the authorities.

The idea of ​​this test operation was "worked with the Prefecture to get it right," Martin Guespereau, delegated prefect for defense and security, told AFP on Wednesday.

"The principle: the customer, probably a regular at the establishment, volunteers to present the operator with proof of his complete vaccination schedule as well as his identity. From then on, he will receive an irremovable bracelet as a sesame, allowing him to 'access the establishment without being checked again,' explains the UMIH.

It is a question of "facilitating the access of the customers", underlined to AFP the president of the UMIH-33, Laurent Tournier, arguing that "the health pass has reduced significantly, even very significantly the activity "of restaurateurs.

The president of the UMIH-33, Laurent Tournier puts a sanitary pass bracelet on the wrist of a customer of the restaurant L'Orangerie, on August 18, 2021 in Bordeaux MEHDI FEDOUACH AFP

The bracelets, marked "UIMH 33 sanitary pass" in gray letters on a white background, must also bear the first three letters of the name of the establishment and of the city where they have been allocated.

But "the police will continue to control the pass and not the bracelet. We will judge: if it works, so much the better, if it does not work, we stop everything. We have the control," says Mr. Guespereau.

Laurent Lutse, president of the cafes, brasseries and nightclubs branch at UMIH, for his part told AFP, having "made a request at the level of the Ministry of the Interior because we have doubts at the level of legal".

According to him, "you need a QR code and not a number on the bracelet otherwise there will be fraud".

In the meantime, Charlène Lagnier, director of the Orangerie, a renowned terrace restaurant within the confines of the Jardin public de Bordeaux, is already delighted: "It's easy, it will be twice as fast for us, we will have less waste of time checking "to see if customers are in good standing.

© 2021 AFP