Health pass: the Senate adopts the anti-Covid-19 text with modifications

Published on : 07/25/2021 – 06:58

The fast-track discussion of the new anti-Covid-19 bill is continuing in Parliament. After the vote of the National Assembly, Friday, the Senate – with a right-wing majority – in turn adopted the text, on the night of Saturday July 24 to Sunday July 25. There is talk of extending the health pass and compulsory vaccination of caregivers, but the senators have made several changes, such as the exemption of the pass for minors or terraces.

The upper house voted the text by 199 votes against 123. Senators and deputies will now try to agree on a compromise text on Sunday, the day after new demonstrations against the “health dictatorship”, bringing together more than 160,000 people in the country, according to figures from the Interior Ministry.

The government is hoping for an agreement from parliamentarians to avoid a new parliamentary shuttle, which would derail a very constrained schedule – the ambition of the executive being to promulgate the law in early August.

In addition to the vaccination obligation for caregivers, firefighters or professionals working with the elderly, the bill provides for an extension of the health pass (complete vaccination course, recent negative test or certificate of recovery) at the beginning of August in coffee shops, fairs and exhibitions, medical establishments, planes, trains and long-distance coaches.

Senators want to postpone the implementation of the health pass to mid-September

The Senate has, however, adopted many changes, which promise lively debates in a joint committee, Sunday from 3 p.m.

He conditioned the extension of the pass on the reestablishment of the state of health emergency, until October 31, and planned to exempt shopping centers.

Some amendments adopted in the Senate have divided the right, such as the exemption from the sanitary pass in terraces or for minors, all measures which could be reviewed in the rest of the discussions.

The senators want to postpone from August 30 to September 15 the implementation of this pass for public places, both for staff and for users.

The Senate also voted a PS amendment so that minors aged 16 and 17 can be vaccinated without parental authorization.

The bill provides for compulsory isolation for the sick, a provision relaxed by the senators.

With AFP