Covid-19 in France: vaccinations but no health pass at school

Published on : 07/21/2021 – 13:56

There will be “no health pass in schools,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday July 21 after a Health Defense Council at the Elysee Palace.

“Our whole strategy since the start of the crisis (…) has consisted in ensuring that the children of France are educated as much as possible. (…) So we will not say now, if you are not vaccinated , especially as some can not do anything, we will deprive you of school. So no health pass in schools, “said Jean Castex to the news of 13 hours of TF1.

In September, “we are going to put the package in the colleges and in the high schools to vaccinate”, added the Prime Minister. “We will do vaccinations in middle and high schools at the start of the school year and on this occasion, we will offer teachers who have not yet been vaccinated to take advantage of this device,” he continued, qualifying as ” satisfying “the vaccination rate of teaching staff.

In addition, the Prime Minister indicated that the law providing for the extension of the health pass and the compulsory vaccination of nursing staff, in particular, could be promulgated in early August.

While this document has been required since Wednesday to access places of leisure and culture bringing together more than 50 people, the head of government stressed that the strategy set by Emmanuel Macron to fight against the “fourth wave” of the Covid epidemic -19 had been validated during this meeting.

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Beyond the gradual expansion of the use of this document to limit contamination, the executive also intends to boost vaccination, especially since almost all new infections occur in unimmunized people. According to the Prime Minister, 96% of the more than 18,000 new cases of Covid-19 contamination diagnosed over 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday were not vaccinated.

Finally, Jean Castex also specified that the managers of establishments open to the public, including cinemas and museums since Wednesday then cafes and restaurants from August, will have to control the health passes but will not be held responsible in the event of fraud, adding that “a week of teaching” would be granted.

The managers will be “responsible for controlling” the health pass, but not for “verifying the identity” of the person presenting it, which will be the responsibility of the police, said Jean Castex. After a week of “pedagogy” for the establishments concerned, “the time for sanctions” will come, he concluded.

With AFP and Reuters