REPORTAGE. In Deauville, bars and restaurants are testing the health pass

« Wait outside! We need to check your QR code . » Behind the counter of the Bar des Amis, at Trouville (Calvados), Patrick Borde is on the lookout. On one of the windows of his terrace, a leaf announces the color: the sanitary pass is required to settle in his establishment, both outside and inside.

The prefecture of Calvados has proposed, in conjunction with the unions, to set up from this Sunday July 25 a experimenting with the sanitary pass on a voluntary basis, in bars and restaurants in eleven towns of the Côte Fleurie. The aim is to halt the resurgence of the epidemic of Covid-19 in the territory. The incidence rate rose from 320 positive cases per 100,000 people on July 19, to 807 positive cases per 100,000 people on Saturday July 24. A dress rehearsal, while the health pass must be extended throughout France to restaurants and bars from the beginning of August.

“Not the gendarmes”

As the measurement is not, for the moment, obligatory, each one applies it to its sauce. « We prefer that to a curfew , explains Christine Gillet, manager of the Creperie La Grignote from the Find. The whole team has the application that allows you to scan the passes. » Here, a client who does not get into the nails will eat outside and will not be able to enter the establishment.

Amalia Bouvier, manager of the restaurant Les Bains, corroborates: « We want to get out of it, but being the gendarme is not our job », she sighs, at the entrance of her establishment, phone in hand. She checks the pass on the terrace and indoors. It relies on the cooperation of its customers. At the restaurant La Sauvageonne, Christopher Vieira also relies on pedagogy: « We require the pass for the interior but not for the terrace », specifies the manager.

In contrast, some decide not to apply the recommendation. « It is not mandatory, so no », laughs at a restaurant owner from Deauville.

“We were surprised, but we understand”

Applying this measure is however a challenge. « We’re wasting time » ; « This is restrictive » ; « We do the vigils » ; « It pushes back customers when the season is already not very good », testify from restaurateurs.

The vast majority of customers are conciliatory. Dominique and Valérie, holidaymakers from the Somme, accept the novelty, even if they admit “ find it weird to show your pass at a restaurant ». Above all, they want to make sure that they will not be tracked. At the pharmacy, Fabrice, Sabine and their daughter Romane get tested especially to go to a restaurant. « We were surprised, but we understand. » Céliane, a 24-year-old Parisian, « not necessarily endorse » to have to present his pass.

The test has in any case the merit of honing the obligation which must come into force in August. « We all have to play the game , concludes Alexandre Rodrigues, head of La Renaissance, in Trouville. This is the only way to get out of it collectively. “

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