Almost all of the health restrictions still in force in France could be lifted within a few weeks, if the improvement on the front of the Covid epidemic is confirmed, now gives hope to the government.
+ NIGHTCLUB REOPENING THIS WEDNESDAY
As promised, the nightclubs, which have been among the most penalized with 18 months of closure over two years of crisis, are reopening their doors.
“So we’re dancing!”, Launched to AFP the Minister Delegate for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, quoting Stromae, welcoming the “professionalism and seriousness of the world of the night (…) pioneer in the control of the health pass”.
Eating popcorn in a cinema, a sandwich in a stadium or on a train, having a drink standing at a bar counter or attending a concert is also possible again.
+ LIGHTER PROTOCOL AT SCHOOL FROM FEBRUARY 21
Thanks to a “very marked improvement” health situation, the government announced that the health protocol would go back from level 3 to level 2 in primary schools upon the return from the winter holidays in the different areas, i.e. from February 21 to March 7.
This will mean an end to mask-wearing in the playground in elementary schools and an easing of rules for student shuffling.
+ NO MORE MASK IN A CLOSED PLACE ON FEBRUARY 28
From this date, except in transport, the mask will no longer be compulsory in closed places subject to the vaccination pass, required for those over 16 to access certain places or events. The rules will also be relaxed for tests for contact cases.
+ TOWARDS THE END OF THE MASK IN MID-MARCH
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, envisaged Wednesday on France Info the end of the wearing of the mask indoors for adults and children “in mid-March”, as well as a reduction in the vaccination pass on this date, if the circulation of the virus is “very weak”.
He mentioned the prospect of “keeping (the mask) in places that are very at risk, such as nightclubs”, this “until the end of March, the beginning of April”.
“We can start to significantly lighten the vaccine pass device, perhaps not all in one block, perhaps we will keep measures for the end of March at the beginning of April”, he continued.
Ads that do not reassure some specialists. “All this is going extremely quickly” and that “there is no criterion in front”, judged Wednesday Gilles Pialoux, head of the infectious diseases department at the Parisian hospital Tenon. “We are a little surprised scientifically that these measures do not take into account occupancy rates and the number of hospitalizations”, added Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine).
+ A TOTAL WAIVER OF THE PASS AT THE END OF MARCH OR BEGINNING OF APRIL?
After Israel, England, Denmark, which have abolished their vaccination or health pass, France should in turn give up this contested device, as the presidential election approaches.
Its lifting is possible “by the end of March”, at the beginning of “April”, had estimated the government, if several conditions are met: an incidence rate “10 or 20 times lower” than currently, the end hospital overload and a very high proportion of vaccinated.
“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,” said government spokesman Gabriel Attal.