The health pass may be required at least until July 31, 2022. This is the main provision of the draft law. “health vigilance”, definitively adopted by the National Assembly on Friday 5 November, with 118 votes for and 89 against.
The text is far from having achieved unanimity. Opposition MPs strongly criticized the government for postponing the next debate on this measure after the spring elections. The Senate, with a right-wing majority and which had revised the bill at first reading, refused to debate it a second time on Thursday, November 4. He rejected it outright, as a sign of protest. But, unsurprisingly, the majority in the Assembly still had the last word. Franceinfo summarizes what we find in this text.
The health pass may be required until the end of July
The use of the health pass is allowed by a law passed in May, which initially only allows it until November 15. Extending this measure is the main reason for this new bill, which makes it possible to impose its use until July 31, 2022. The law only sets this framework: it is the Prime Minister who can then take a decree requiring the presentation of the health pass to access certain places. It is therefore not certain that it will actually be used until next summer, even if the law allows it.
The government has not yet suggested that it could renounce the pass, nor change the scope of its use. The bill specifies that recourse to this measure must be justified by a series of criteria (vaccination rate, positivity rate of screening tests, saturation rate of intensive care beds), but does not set any quantified threshold.
The date of July 31 was also the subject of heated debate in the Assembly and the Senate. On October 29, senators voted for a revised version of the text that brought the end of the authorization of the pass to February 28. After this date, the work of Parliament will in fact be suspended for the duration of the presidential and legislative elections.
The date chosen by the government makes it possible to postpone the question after the two ballots, even if a debate on the effectiveness of the health measures, without a decision-making vote, will be organized no later than February 15 in the Senate and the Assembly. . The Republicans and the left have already provided for appeals to the Constitutional Council.
The prolonged “exit from the state of emergency” regime
Beyond the use of the health pass, it is the entire regime of “exit from the state of health emergency”, in force since the end of May, which is extended until July 31. This regime gives the Prime Minister the right to prohibit or restrict travel, gatherings and access to certain places (shops, cafes and restaurants, public transport). This is the basis on which the health pass is based, but also, for example, the obligation to wear a mask. Restoring a curfew or confinement would, on the other hand, require a return to a state of health emergency.
Sanctions against pass fraud tightened
Making or obtaining a fake health pass can now be punished by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros, against three years and currently 45,000 euros. The penalty is now the same as that incurred for fraudulently procuring a real pass to someone who is not entitled to it.
The vaccination status of students revealed to principals
The text also contains a provision unrelated to the pass: it allows school directors and heads of middle and high schools to know the vaccination status of students. They will also know if they have been contaminated or in contact with infected people.
This measure had been withdrawn by the senators, then reinstated by the deputies. His opponents worried about a “breach of medical confidentiality”. The government justifies it by the desire to facilitate school vaccination and the management of class closures.
The prolonged state of emergency in Guyana and Martinique
In a different health situation from France, Guyana and Martinique are still under the state of health emergency. The text extends this regime until December 31 in these two territories.