On Thursday, the French parliament approved President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to introduce a vaccination pass to help curb the spread of the Omicron option.
Earlier this week, Macron told Le Parisien that he wanted to make the lives of those who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 complicated by restricting their access to public places so that they would eventually be forced to immunize.
More than 90% of French people over the age of 12 have received at least two doses, according to government figures.
Lawmakers in the lower house of the French parliament passed a bill, including a vaccination passport, shortly after 5 a.m. this morning after a session last night, with many of those who voted against the bill from the far right or far left.
The law will be submitted to the Senate (Upper House) before it is finally voted in the National Assembly of France, NOPVA reports.
For several months now, people in France have had to show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter various places such as cinemas and cafes and use trains. But with the increase in infections with the Delta and Omicron variants, the government decided to remove in the new bill the option to present a negative Covid test.
The vaccination pass rules will apply to people over 16, not 12, as originally requested by the government.
A number of European countries are facing the important question of whether to force citizens to be vaccinated. On Wednesday, Italy made vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for people over the age of 50, with public health teachers and staff already obliged to be immunized.
On Wednesday, France recorded a record of more than 332,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and another 246 deaths in hospitals.
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