France aims to introduce vaccine pass from mid-January

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - France aims to launch vaccine passes from mid-January, allowing only fully vaccinated people to enter public places, a spokesman said Tuesday

“The omicron variant is rapidly advancing, and so are we [with vaccinations]…Speeding up also means setting up the vaccination pass without waiting," Gabriel Attal told the media after a meeting between Prime Minister Jean Castex and elected officials.

“There is no time to lose against the omicron variant,” he added.

The government will present draft legislation for the vaccination pass to the Council of Ministers on Dec. 27 so that it can be examined by the end of the year and discussed in parliament in early January.

“We are aiming for the definitive adoption of the vaccination pass in the first half of January,” Attal confirmed.

The government is currently stepping up its campaign for a third booster shot which is open to all adults 18 years and older in order to minimize the impact of the omicron variant.

The transformation of the prevailing health pass into a vaccination pass will further restrict access to around 5 million unvaccinated people who have refused to be immunized against COVID-19.

Under the health pass, unvaccinated people could enter restaurants, cafes, cinema halls, places for large gatherings or take long-distance flights and trains by showing negative test results. But the vaccination pass will in effect make three vaccine doses obligatory as negative RT-PCR tests will no longer be accepted.

The health pass will be invalid in the absence of the booster shot, Health Minister Olivier Veran had indicated earlier.

Attal noted there was a rise in the epidemic situation with 72,832 positive cases detected across the country as of Tuesday. Around 20% of the infections were estimated to be linked to the omicron variant, and in densely populated regions like Paris, the variant was responsible for one in three positive cases, he said.