VIDEO – Easing of restrictions: the agenda of the main dates and measures

Although contaminations continue to soar, with a record of nearly 526,000 people tested positive recorded on Monday, the epidemic situation seems to be improving: the critical care services, which house the most serious cases, welcomed a total of 3,852 people diagnosed on Wednesday. at Covid, a figure that has been declining for several days even if, more generally, hospitalizations continue to increase. Thanks to these encouraging signs, Jean Castex detailed the timetable for the gradual lifting of the last restrictions.

“The wave caused by the Omicron variant is beginning to stall in the regions where this variant first hit in late December”, particularly in the Ile-de-France region, thus underlined the Prime Minister on Thursday evening. “The evolution of the situation allows us to envisage an easing of the constraints from the first days of February”, he continued. During a press conference held alongside the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Jean Castex presented the choices adopted by the government in the morning during a Defense and National Security Council, and detailed the timetable set by the executive for the coming weeks.

From Monday January 24, all French people aged 16 and over will now have to present a complete vaccination schedule to go to public places hitherto subject to the health pass, announced Jean Castex. However, a deadline “subject to the decision of the Constitutional Council, expected tomorrow”, said the Prime Minister.

He also indicated that social medical establishments such as retirement homes and hospitals will not be subject to it, and will remain accessible on presentation of a test as part of the health pass, as hitherto. Eligibility for a booster dose, necessary to access the vaccine pass, is set at seven months after the last injection, is reduced to four months from February 15, recalled Jean Castex.

However, the end date of this vaccination pass has not been brought forward, but the Minister specified that this pass could be suspended if the epidemic pressure, in particular on hospitals, “came to be reduced sharply and durably”, “while obviously being ready to reactivate it in the event of a restart”, he added.

As of Wednesday, February 2, there will no longer be a gauge in sports and cultural equipment that has been subject to it since the return of this measure on December 27. The mask will however remain compulsory within the confines of these public places, such as the cinema, the theater or the sports stadiums. Outside, the wearing of the mask will however be lifted.

As for teleworking, currently compulsory three days a week for companies that can set it up, it will no longer be imposed, “but will remain recommended, leaving companies to maintain the right level within the framework of their internal dialogue”, added Jean Castex.

The choice of this date is motivated by the proximity to the entry into force of the vaccination pass, a week earlier: “As soon as we know that it will be well accepted, well controlled and well implemented, the risk of contamination will be considered low enough for us to relax restrictive measures such as gauges”, thus justified Olivier Véran.

The following week, starting Wednesday, February 16, “consumption in stadiums, cinemas or transport will be authorized again”, said the Prime Minister. Standing concerts will also be able to resume and consumption will again be authorized standing in bars.

After 10 weeks of closure, nightclubs will also be able to reopen their doors. As for the wearing of the mask, it is maintained for the moment in these establishments at night. To access it, the vaccination pass will be compulsory, but no negative test in addition, on the model of the German system: “we don’t have the ambition to do it as it is”, said Olivier Véran.

“Around mid-February, not only should we have largely passed the epidemic peak of omicron, but if we stick to the situation of our neighbours, including the British, for example, we will undoubtedly have already descended much lower in terms of the number of cases of contamination per day”, added the Minister of Health.

As of the start of the school year after the winter holidays, “we will be able to consider a reduction in the school protocol”, said Jean Castex, referring in particular to a possible lifting of the wearing of the mask and a modification of the screening protocol. As a reminder, the holidays during this period begin on February 5 with schoolchildren in zone B and end, for those in zone C, on March 7.

“I am fully aware that the adaptation of the health protocol at school has led to difficulties and difficulties for parents of students, difficulties for our teachers”, he also assured, while hammering: “nothing would have been worse than closing schools, or even delaying the start of the school year”

“We are definitely in a new phase of the epidemic”, concluded the Prime Minister, while calling “on the part of each and everyone, strict respect for the rules of the game until their end”.