the government publishes the decree allowing the return of unvaccinated caregivers

The end of a long soap opera. The government published on Sunday May 14 in the Official Journal the decree allowing the return to work of caregivers not vaccinated against Covid, who had been suspended from their duties since August 2021. “The obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19 provided for by article 12 of the aforementioned law of August 5, 2021 is suspended”, details the decree issued overnight. It thus lifts the vaccination obligation for caregivers and therefore authorizes their return from Monday.

The conditions of this return, which provide in particular that the suspended person be reinstated in the same post or a post “equivalent”, were defined by the government in a ministerial instruction issued two weeks ago, to give hospitals and other healthcare establishments time to prepare. The government keeps the possibility of suspending the non-vaccinated again if the pandemic starts again, by a new decree.

A few thousand concerned

The PCF group in the National Assembly voted on May 4 a bill definitively repealing the obligation to vaccinate against Covid, which would prohibit any return of suspensions. But the government opposes it, and the bill has not yet been examined by the Senate.

The exclusion of unvaccinated caregivers has inflamed social media, but the number of people affected is likely quite small. Estimates range from a few thousand, according to parcel information obtained in particular from the Ministry of Health, to “from 20 to 40,000 people”according to Elsa Ruillère, a leader of groups of caregivers refusing the vaccine who became elected CGT Health.