The passes of arms in the Hemicycle were bitter. After two weeks of debate, Parliament definitively adopted the bill strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis, during a final vote in the National Assembly, Sunday January 16. The promulgation of this law, which notably establishes the controversial vaccine pass, is only a matter of days according to the government. The insubordinate France of Jean-Luc Mélenchon has however announced that it has brought together the 60 parliamentarians necessary to seize the Constitutional Council, according to information from franceinfo.
Differences with the health pass, age groups concerned, checks and sanctions: here are the details of the new rules that will apply.
Testing will no longer activate the pass
To be valid, the vaccination pass will only take into account the vaccination schedule, which must be complete, or a recovery certificate attesting to a recovery from Covid-19 dating back less than six months. Covid-19 screening tests, whether PCR or antigenic, are no longer sufficient to obtain the precious sesame.
As a reminder, the vaccination pass will be compulsory to access places where the health pass was already requested, such as many establishments open to the public (bars, restaurants, cinemas, shopping centers of more than 20,000 m2), but also to borrow certain means of transport, such as trains, domestic planes, buses, coaches and carpooling. To travel by these means, the law specifies that non-vaccinated persons must provide proof of “compelling family or health reasons” as well as a negative test.
However, the health pass does not disappear
The vaccination pass will not purely and simply replace the health pass, as several exceptions should be noted. This version of the document will remain sufficient to access hospitals, health centers and nursing homes. Important clarification: the vaccination pass will only concern people aged 16 or over. Young people aged 12 to 15 can (and must) continue to present a health pass to enter a place with restricted access.
A temporary activation is offered to people being vaccinated
The vaccination pass will benefit from a progressive implementation. Thus, a sesame will be temporarily allocated to people not vaccinated, but engaged in a vaccination schedule, as well as to people who have not yet received their booster dose seven months after their last dose. By the time these people reach a full vaccination schedule, they may present a negative test result in place of the vaccination pass.
An identity check may be carried out in addition to the verification of the pass
The managers of establishments concerned by the vaccination or health pass may request an official document with a photograph to verify the concordance between the various supporting documents. This control will be authorized when there is “serious reasons to believe that the document presented is not related to the person presenting it”, details the adopted text.
Fraudsters will risk heavier penalties
Any fraudulent possession of a false health pass (whether falsified or borrowed from a third party) is punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. A sentence far from trivial, which is increased to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros in the event of fraudulent possession of several false documents. However, the law provides some flexibility on these sanctions: if the fraudster is administered the missing dose within thirty days after the date of the offense, he can escape these convictions.
Fines may be imposed on companies refractory to telework
The law provides for fines to enforce the government’s incentive to introduce telework “three days minimum” per week, four when possible, “in all companies and for all employees for whom this is possible”. Thereby, companies that do not play the teleworking game will risk an administrative fine of up to 500 euros per employee concerned, up to a limit of 50,000 euros per fine.