Calvados is experimenting with the health pass in bars and restaurants from Sunday

The Calvados prefecture announced on Saturday July 24 a “Voluntary experimentation”, from Sunday, the health pass in the bars and restaurants of the Côte Fleurie (Deauville, Trouville), to cope with a sharp increase in the number of cases of Covid-19.

“We anticipate the mandatory system by a week. It is a way of securing frequentation of bars and restaurants ”, explained Philippe Court, prefect of Calvados. The incidence rate of the virus has increased significantly on the Côte Fleurie from 320 per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday to 807 on Saturday, according to the prefecture.

Extended health pass, full-fledged vaccination, reminder of barrier gestures: in the heart of summer, the authorities want to do everything to slow the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases due to the highly contagious Delta variant and above all to prevent it does not touch the hospital. The number of daily cases almost doubles from week to week: from around 4,500 on July 9, this figure rose to 25,600 on Saturday. “We will arrive at 50,000 cases probably at the beginning of August”, warned Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of the Scientific Council which guides the government.

For the first time in fifteen weeks, the increase in cases is accompanied by a “Net increase in the hospitalization rate (+ 55%) and the number of patients admitted to critical care services (+ 35%) “, alerted, Friday, Public Health France in its weekly update. That is why it is imperative to“Achieve as quickly as possible a sufficient level of collective immunity” for “Avoid new hospital tensions”, underlined the health agency.

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  • Calvados anticipates the extended health pass

In Calvados, the health pass will be in effect, from Sunday morning, in the bars and restaurants of the Coeur Côte Fleurie community of municipalities, which includes twelve municipalities, including the seaside resorts of Deauville and Trouville-sur-Mer.

The incidence rate of the virus has increased significantly on the Côte Fleurie from 320 per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday to 807 on Saturday, according to the prefecture, which explains this situation by “The presence of the Delta variant, now largely in the majority, as well as, on the Coast, a strong influx and a summer context, sometimes festive, which has led to the appearance of several clusters”.

A consultation was organized on Friday with the prefect, the mayors and professionals of bars, restaurants and hotels, at the end of which “It was decided to anticipate the extension of the health pass to bars and restaurants (…) in the form of a voluntary experiment ‘, depending on the prefecture. “We had to act”, underlined the prefect, Philippe Court, stressing the importance of “Vaccination triptych, health pass and barrier gestures”. Some 2,000 people demonstrated on Saturday in Caen against the health pass, according to the prefecture.

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  • Nice will offer saliva tests for children in leisure centers

Nice will offer, from Wednesday, saliva tests to detect Covid-19 to children and adolescents, aged 3 to 17, hosted in its leisure centers, but without obligation. “A child who has not taken the test will be accepted, because the law does not allow me to refuse it”, specified the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, while, the day before, parents had received e-mails from the city telling them that in the absence of a test or vaccination certificate, their children would not be admitted to the center for fun. “It was a circular badly drafted by the administration”, assured Mr. Estrosi.

Apart from this saliva test, parents can also present their child’s vaccination certificate. The personnel of these municipal establishments will have to present a health pass to be employed there. These measures, according to the councilor, aim above all to “Avoid closures that could be dramatic for children who do not go on vacation and for working families”.

In a statement, the Secretary of State to the Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, Sarah El Haïry, recalled that “The current legal provisions cannot provide for the imposition of the health pass in leisure and (…) any decision going in this direction would have no legal basis ”.

Christian Estrosi specifies, moreover, to work on a municipal decree “Prohibiting orchestra, DJ or music favoring the fact that people get up and dance” in establishments with a terrace or beach in the public domain.

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  • In Lille, 78 customers of a nightclub positive for Covid-19

Seventy-eight cases of Covid-19 have been identified among people who attended a nightclub in downtown Lille around July 14, according to the contact tracing carried out health authorities. ” The contact tracing carried out by Medicare and ARS [agence régionale de santé] from the six cases initially declared, revealed a rapid chain of contamination, considering both the large number of people who participated in these evenings and the festive context inherent in this type of establishment ”, reports, in a press release, the ARS of Hauts-de-France, which called on other customers to be tested.

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“The current screening reveals a mutation suggestive of the Delta variant”, specifies the press release. All those diagnosed positive have been “Invited to strict isolation for ten days”. The ARS recalls in particular “To the operators of festive places the importance of ventilation of the premises”.

Two sources of SARS-CoV-2 contamination had been identified on Friday in nightclubs located in the east of the country, in the Vosges and Doubs. Clusters that revive the debate around the opening of this type of establishment.

The World with AFP