China News Service, January 17. According to a report compiled by the European Times, after two weeks of disputes and revisions, on the afternoon of January 16, local time, the French National Assembly voted 215 in favor, 58 against, and 7 in the final third reading. The abstention vote resulted in the passage of the Vaccine Passport Act.
The French government hopes to implement this bill as soon as possible to deal with the worsening epidemic.
The French government hopes to formally implement the bill around January 20, enabling vaccine passports.
At that time, in addition to entering medical institutions, people entering restaurants, bars, visiting expositions, participating in entertainment activities, and taking public transportation across the region, showing a negative test certificate will no longer be valid, and they must prove that they have been fully vaccinated.
In addition, at the insistence of the Senate, the French National Assembly added an important element to the text of the bill: the vaccine passport is only suitable for people over 16 years old, because teenagers over 16 years old can decide whether to get vaccinated without parental consent.
Minors between the ages of 12 and 15 still only use health passes.
According to data from the French Ministry of Education, as of January 14, local time, the number of classes closed due to the epidemic had reached 14,300, the highest level since the spring of 2020, accounting for 2.73% of the total number of 527,200 classes in France.
Affected by the spread of the Omicron variant strain, the number of affected classes rose rapidly after school began.
On January 15, local time, French Labor Minister Borna announced that the government has decided to reduce the administrative penalty for companies that do not comply with the remote working order to 500 euros per employee, compared with the previous plan of 1,000 euros.
The ceiling of €50,000 per company remains unchanged.