The examination of the text at first reading will begin on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. in the chamber of the Senate and may continue on Wednesday. “There will still be difficult debates,” LR rapporteur Philippe Bas told AFP, even if the discussion in committee was “very peaceful”.
Pass maintained for minors
As adopted by the deputies, the text provides that the over 12s must be able to justify a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except for access to health establishments and services.
However, the deputies had postponed from 12 to 16 years the need for a vaccination pass for school trips and peri and extracurricular activities. Senators have simplified things by planning to limit the possibility of requiring the presentation of a vaccination pass to people over 18 years of age. Minors aged 12 to 17 would remain subject to the obligation to present a health pass.
The vaccination pass disappears below a hospitalization threshold
Another major change, Mr. Bas has provided for a mechanism of “automatic shutdown” of the vaccination pass. Thus, it could only be imposed when the number of hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 exceeds 10,000 patients nationally and automatically disappears below this threshold. Hospitals now have nearly 23,000 patients sick with Covid, according to figures from health authorities.
Below the threshold of 10,000 patients, the vaccination pass could only be maintained in the departments where the complete vaccination rate is less than 80% of the total population and with a high incidence rate.
The senators rewrote the measure relating to the identity verification that cafetiers and restaurateurs can perform to ensure that the vaccination pass is linked to the person presenting it. This could justify his identity by presenting an official document including a photograph, form which would include driving license or vital card.
The senators have also purely and simply deleted the provisions relating to the control of teleworking by labor inspectors. The centrist senator Philippe Bonnecarrère also denounced “the lack of foresight of the government on the voting conditions for the presidential election”, indicated the president of the group Hervé Marseille.