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Health Pass – The French are not yet done with the health card. A bill extending the potential use of the health card until July 31, 2022 was introduced on October 13 in the Cabinet. A controversial text that makes the opposition sway, and especially challenges the decision to step down in the presidential elections.
Faced with concern, the government spokesperson emphasized that the bill “did not provide for the introduction of a lifelong health card.” “Secondly, there will be no need to control the epidemic, and we will be happy to withdraw it,” Gabriel Attal emphasized.
And to add: “Extending the usability of a pass does not prolong its existence. Once we can remove a constraint, like a mask at school for example, we do so without delay.”
To pass potential extension pills, even if the generalized end of the mask isn’t on the agenda, the government is letting go of weight in departments where health is improving. Since October 4, students of several primary schools have been able to drop the mask in the departments where Covid is less distributed: 68 departments are involved today. And that’s not the only place where masks will become optional.
Wearing a mask, gauges…
Several governors have also recently issued ordinances aimed at eliminating the obligation to wear masks in places subject to the health card (restaurants, cinemas, museums, theaters, etc.). This is the case in Lower Atlantic or in where, Departments where virus circulation is relatively low. You can now watch movies without a mask in cinemas or visit museums without protection.
“The doxa is that we need clear rules at the global level (extension of health permit nationally), while giving ourselves the possibility to achieve the end at the local level (arrangements that can be imagined on a case-by-case basis through an ordinance),” it was already pointed out in The end of September in the entourage of the head of state.
Another relief: the end of counters in theaters and nightclubs. Since last October 4, it is possible that the infection rate has stabilized below the threshold of 50 per 100,000 population.
theaters access counters, up to now 75%, For example it was uploaded on Tuesday 12th October in Aude. the same in Meurth and MoselleThe wearing of masks outdoors during gatherings and around schools and nurseries has also been lifted.
By easing certain restrictions, such as mask-wearing, the government wants, among other things, to allow the French to breathe a little before a possible resumption of the epidemic. “If we do not make a decision on relief, we will not be able to take the population in case of need, as the delegation accompanying the head of state ruled a few weeks ago. The psychological cost of the epidemic should not be neglected either.”
Towards the return of the epidemic?
Because a rapid return to the epidemic in the coming weeks is not impossible. Rather, it is “very likely,” Arnaud Fontanet, a professor at the Pasteur Institute and a member of the Scientific Council, estimated last September to our colleagues at Parisian.
The epidemic is expected to return in the fall. First and foremost because climatic conditions will give way to that, but also because there is still enough unvaccinated stockpile to cause an epidemic and put the hospital in a state of stress.”
More optimistic, Gabriel Attal affirmed on Wednesday 13 October “Hope that the situation will remain in the dynamic of improvement. He added that if that was the case, the government could “amend the health card in the coming weeks, or even suspend it completely.”
In its opinion, issued on 6 October but published a week later, the Scientific Council considers that health restrictions should be imposed only “as a last resort (…), to the only extent and for the most necessary period justified by the fact of the risks” and that “the health passport should remain Temporary and proportional tool.
The Scientific Council, in its opinion on the Health Vigilance Bill, insists that such restrictions can only be imposed “as a last resort” and “only to the extent and strictly necessary duration justified by the reality of the risks”. #Covid 19
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– Nicholas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) October 13, 2021
Managing the continuation or suspension of a health pass in such a context of improvement in a health plan is a real health issue, but also a societal issue (…), adds the Scientific Council which recommends ‘particularly of interest and support’ for certain audiences (the population who They refuse vaccination, groups affected by mental health, nursing staff, etc.)”.
The executive, which has ruled out making vaccination mandatory, has made health a centerpiece of its strategy to combat Covid, sparking demonstrations for more than three months that gathered about 40,000 people last Saturday.
See also on The HuffPost: Why Covid tests will pay from October 15th