COVID MASK. From this Monday, March 14, 2022, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory indoors, including in businesses and at school. Transport and health establishments are the only places still subject to health restrictions.
[Mis à jour le 14 mars 2022 à 07h56] It’s D-Day. After a year and a half spent with a mask over their nose and mouth, the French can finally do without the anti-covid accessory from this Monday, March 14, 2022. As announced by the Premier Minister Jean Castex on March 3 on TF1, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory indoors to the delight of businesses, schools, shops and public services. These spaces finally join the closed places subject until now to the vaccination pass such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters and sports halls where the mask has been optional since February 28. However, the abandonment of the mask is not yet recorded everywhere: public transport whatever it is is still subject to the health restriction “given the promiscuity” between individuals in the metros, the buses but also the trains and planes. Health establishments such as hospitals and nursing homes also remain spaces where the mask is compulsory and this “until further notice” specifies the government on its website.
If wearing a mask is no longer compulsory, it continues to be “recommended” by the Ministry of Health, in particular for positive people and contact cases at risk, symptomatic people and health professionals. For all the others who also prefer to keep the mask on their nose, this is quite possible because, despite the lifting of the restriction, vigilance and barrier gestures remain in place in a context where a slight epidemic rebound is feared due to of the BA.2 sub-variant which has become the majority in France.
In addition to the end of the mandatory mask, this March 14 marks the significant reduction in health protocols in schools and businesses. The Ministry of National Education again authorizes the mixing of students in schools and above all isolation is no longer necessary for vaccinated contact cases, among others. In companies, the Minister of Labor promised, Elisabeth Borne, promised during her appearance on LCI on March 8 the return of normal rules to offices. To make the transition, the Ministry of Labor must publish a “guide to measures to prevent the risks of contamination with Covid-19 outside of an epidemic situation” supposed to replace the health protocol deployed since spring 2020.
Reactions to the announcement of the measure
With the presidential election approaching, the easing of standards has both health and political aims. Everything is a question of timing, the lifting of the wearing of the mask and the suspension of the health pass being decided during the Health Defense Council of March 2, the day before the formalization of the candidacy of Emmanuel Macron in a letter to the French. A strategy that some are indignant about, like Florian Philippot, of the Les Patriotes party, who responds to the announcement on Twitter with “it just smells like the election campaign!”, before adding “If Macron passes in April , we will have the return of the Vaccinal Pass in July!” or Jean-Frédéric Poisson, president of the Christian Democratic party “VIA, the voice of the people”, who considers this announcement “calculated according to the electoral calendar”, in a tweet this March 3. For others however, strategy or not, this announcement is very good news. In particular for those who pleaded for the end of the wearing of the mask, like the epidemiologist Alice Desbiolles who, in an interview granted to Doctissimo at the beginning of February, explained that the misdeeds of wearing masks, increasingly documented, impacted “the mental health of children which is deteriorating”, remarks confirmed by his colleague, the emergency doctor Gérald Kierzek in a tweet on February 7.
In a press release dated February 11, 2022, the Ministry of Health indicated that “in other closed places, subject to the vaccination pass, wearing a mask will no longer be compulsory”, from February 28. These are:
- theaters
- theme parks
- concert halls
- festivals
- sports halls
- sports speakers
- game rooms
- libraries
- documentation centers
- cinemas
- bars
- restaurants
- fairs
- trade shows
- professional seminars if they take place outside the company and bring together more than 50 people;
- ski lifts in ski resorts
- access to tourist accommodation such as campsites or holiday clubs with a single check at the start of the stay.
- Schools, holiday centers and leisure centres. Wearing a compulsory mask will no longer concern educational, educational and training establishments; holiday centres; leisure centers without accommodation for adult teachers and supervisors.
- In the enterprises
- Shops. Sales outlets, shopping centers and covered markets will no longer be affected by the wearing of compulsory masks.
If the mask can now be dropped in many places, it remains mandatory indoors in some areas of daily life:
- Transport. Trains, subways, buses, bus and ferry stations as well as airports.
- hospitals and health facilities
Companies are subject to wearing a mandatory mask via a health protocol defined by the Ministry of Labor. This document indicates that “following the updating of scientific knowledge on the transmission of the virus by aerosols and taking into account the recommendations of the HCSP dated August 28, 2020 and January 14, 18 and 20, 2021, the wearing of a mask is systematic within companies in closed collective places. It is either a “general public filtration greater than 90%” mask (corresponding to the so-called “category 1″ mask), or a surgical type mask”. Exceptions are provided for, such as in individual offices, well-ventilated workshops or when the work is carried out outdoors.
The mask is no longer a mandatory outdoor accessory since February 2 and the first wave of lifting of restrictions. It is no longer compulsory but it remains recommended and the government is appealing to the logic of the French to reconnect with the wearing of a mask in very busy places.
The fine in force in the event of non-compliance with the wearing of the compulsory mask should remain at 135 euros. “Failure to comply with this measure could be liable, as is the case in other places where wearing a mask is compulsory, in particular transport, to a 4th class fine” defined by a fixed fine of 135 euros , had specified the general directorate of health as soon as this measure was put in place last year. In case of recidivism, the amount can go up to 1500 euros.