The debates were eventful, but the National Assembly ended up adopting at first reading the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass, Thursday, January 6, in the early morning. The text was validated by 214 votes against 93, and 27 abstentions, and must be examined by the Senate at the beginning of next week. “We hope that it can be examined as soon as possible”, Jean Castex said on BFMTV. The government’s initial timetable, which provided for entry into force on January 15, risks being delayed, especially as the Constitutional Council could be referred to it, causing an additional delay.
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Three articles make up the text: the first devoted to the vaccination pass itself, which provides for proof of vaccination status to replace the current health pass. The second article specifies how the prefectures can receive the data necessary to control quarantines for people with Covid-19. The third is devoted to the rules of isolation. Here are the main points to remember.
A widely required vaccination pass
The new pass will be required in particular to access leisure activities, restaurants and drinking establishments (with the exception of collective catering), fairs, seminars and trade shows, and interregional public transport (planes, trains, coaches) . One exception, however, in the case of transport: there will be no need for the vaccination pass for trips justified by a “overriding reason for family or health”, a dying loved one for example, on condition of presenting a negative test. The text specifies, however, that “not applicable in case of emergency preventing the obtaining of the supporting document”, without specifying the nature of these emergencies.
Employees in the sectors concerned will be required to have such a pass. One “proof of commitment to a vaccination schedule” may be sufficient time to receive the required doses. In addition, by decision of the prefects, access to department stores or shopping centers may also be subject to the vaccination pass.
In addition, it will always be possible to present a negative test result to access health and medico-social establishments and services. The health pass system is in fact maintained in these places. Organizers of political meetings will be able to require a health pass from participants.
Not before 16 years old for extracurricular and extracurricular
The deputies raised to 16 years the threshold required for the vaccination pass for the activities “extracurricular and extracurricular”, sporting or cultural. The government had retained the 12-year threshold in its initial plan, before changing. A compromise was found after an amendment by the socialist Cécile Untermaier, who plans, between 12 and 15 years, to maintain the current system of the health pass (that is to say with the possibility of presenting a negative test result) within the framework of the activities concerned. The vaccination pass, in this case, will therefore only be applied “the age from which a minor can be vaccinated against Covid-19 without parental consent”, i.e. 16 years. A form of “vaccine majority”, as summarized by Jean Castex on BFMTV.
Adolescents between 12 and 15 years old, on the other hand, must have a vaccination pass to access other establishments, like the rest of the adult population.
Better controlled presentation of the pass
In addition to the police, the managers of places and activities subject to the pass will be able to check them, but under very supervised conditions. Thus, the deputies adopted a government amendment making it possible to require an identity document “when there are serious reasons for believing that the document presented is not authentic or does not relate to the person presenting it”. In addition, the operators of establishments will risk a fine of 1,000 euros from the first failure to check the pass – this sanction is now pronounced from the third failure.
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Reinforced sanctions against false passes
The fact of presenting a pass belonging to another person and the fact of transmitting a pass to others with a view to its fraudulent use will be punished from the first breach of a fixed fine of 1000 euros, against 135 euros currently. The possession of a false pass will be punished by a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. The police have brought to light “192,483 false health passes as of December 30”, said Tuesday the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin. The minister, who was speaking during the questioning of the government at the National Assembly, added that “435 investigations” had been opened by justice.
The deputies adopted a government amendment on “repentance”: people holding false passes will not be punished if they are injected with a first dose of vaccine within 30 days of the date of the offense.
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Fines for non-compliance with teleworking
The government proposes to sanction with an administrative fine of up to 1,000 euros per employee, up to a limit of 50,000 euros, companies not playing the game of teleworking to fight against the epidemic. A new national company protocol was published at the end of December, to oblige structures which can do so to set up teleworking three or four days a week on average. This concerns positions where remote work is possible, from January 3 and for a period of three weeks.
Rules on the state of health emergency
The bill programs the state of health emergency until March 31 in Reunion Island and Martinique. If this exceptional regime, which allows re-containment or curfew, is declared in another overseas territory before March 1, it will be automatically extended until the end of March as well. This should therefore concern Guadeloupe, Guyana, Mayotte, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélémy, returned to a state of health emergency on Wednesday.
In mainland France, it is a transitional regime called “exit from the state of health emergency” which is already in force, until July 31, 2022. It is this regime, a kind of toolbox available to the government, which makes it possible to order restrictive measures (movement of persons, demonstrations, access to establishments receiving of the public …) including the pass. In the event of a worsening of the epidemic and if there was a need for more serious measures, the state of health emergency should be re-initiated in metropolitan France. If this regime were to be extended for more than four weeks, Parliament would have to authorize it.