Vaccination pass comes into force, as easing of restrictions looms

Weapon criticized by the government once morest the Omicron variant, the vaccine pass replaces the health pass on Monday and becomes compulsory for people over 16 wishing to go to a restaurant or take the train.

Most of the provisions of the bill – definitively adopted on January 16 by Parliament following heated debates – were validated on Friday by the Constitutional Council, with the exception, in the midst of the presidential campaign, of the possibility of requiring a pass sanitation at political rallies.

From this Monday, a negative test is no longer sufficient, except to access health establishments and services: for those over the age of 16, proof of vaccination status once morest Covid-19 must be provided in order to have access to the activities of leisure, restaurants and bars (except collective catering), fairs or interregional public transport (planes, trains, coaches).

“The vaccine pass is a game-changer and will allow normal activities to resume once more”, highlighted Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Minister Delegate for SMEs and Tourism, Sunday on Europe 1, adding: “Last summer, the health pass is what allowed us to face a wave and to keep open a certain number of businesses: well there it is the same“.

For Sammy, a waiter in a café in the Pigalle district in Paris, “this new pass is frankly not going to change anything because most customers are vaccinated. And February will be there quickly with the start of the lifting of restrictions”, the government having notably announced the end of wearing a mask outdoors and compulsory teleworking on February 2, then the reopening of nightclubs and the return of consumption at the counter on February 16.

If the law now authorizes the managers of establishments to check the identity of customers in the event of doubt regarding the pass presented, “never in my life will I do that!” Exclaims the Parisian waiter.

– “I will make Blablacar!” –

An opinion shared by the manager of the Lille bar Les Arts, César Armand: “of course sometimes we have doubts when we look at the date of birth and the person’s head does not match, but I am not a police officer”.

It is difficult to estimate the number of people who will be deprived of a pass, insofar as this will suppose both not being vaccinated and not having had Covid in the last few months.

The vaccine pass, still vilified by 40,000 people on Saturday in demonstrations according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, will certainly not push Laurence to take the plunge: “the more we are going to put coercion on my body, on my freedom, the more my decision will be reinforced,” said this 50-year-old who works in national education and lives in a rural area in the North.

Not wanting to give her last name like most of the people interviewed, she nevertheless admits “love to go to the café, to the tea room. What will change, however, is that until now I was doing tests to take the train, and now I won’t even be able to move. But I’ll do Blablacar!”.

Nico, a 42-year-old driver from the Saint-Brieuc region, will not be vaccinated either: “we are not anti-vaccine, I am vaccinated once morest tetanus, measles, but this vaccine is not reliable We don’t know what can happen 10 or 15 years later Me, I don’t bother people because I’m not vaccinated, I deprive myself, it’s still a trauma because we say to ourselves that we are the victims”, deplores this “yellow vest”.

“Not necessarily” once morest the vaccine, Eloïse, 23, is on the other hand “very opposed to the pass which affects our fundamental freedoms”. She does not “want to crack” even if the vaccination pass means for her “more sport, more transport, more restaurants, more travel…”, regrets the Lille student for whom “Macron’s words, his + fuck the non-vaccinated +, it was very hard. We are neither terrorists nor criminals”.