Sanitary pass: soon to return in the face of the 7th wave of Covid?

SANITARY PASS. While there is talk of a draft health law to put the device back at the borders, what does the President of the Scientific Council predict in the months to come, following the new wave of Covid-19 in France?

[Mise à jour le 1er juillet 2022 à 11h46] While the contaminations of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron have been on the rise for three weeks in France, the president of the Scientific Council gave his point of view to RTL this Thursday, June 30, on the evolution of the epidemic of Covid-19 in the coming months: “The peak is not yet there for BA.5, but it will rather be for the end of July, even if we have to be careful. The impact on the healthcare system is not at its maximum “. In the fall, Jean-François Delfraissy predicts new variants: “The problem is to know if we will still have BA.5 in the fall or if we will have another new variant”. However, he was reassuring about Omicron’s BA.5, for which vaccines are effective:

“You must be vaccinated with the 4th dose now, without waiting for September-October, if you are over 60 and if you have several risk factors,” he advised. So no obligations with a health pass, but just common sense and recommendation. The President of the Scientific Council thinks “that the health crisis law will end on July 31, and that is very good from a democratic point of view, but the health authorities must be able to keep control of a certain number of decisions. “if a more severe variant surfaced. In his view, for the moment, only the return of a health pass to the borders of France is useful, and this is what the Ministry of Health provides.

A draft health law aimed at maintaining “a health monitoring and security system” until March 2023 was presented by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Thursday June 30 to the presidents of the parliamentary groups and will be examined in the Assembly at from July 5. The preliminary draft could provide for the reinstatement of a health pass at the borders of metropolitan France, in Corsica and in the overseas territories “from August 1, 2022 and until March 31, 2023”. But beware, a health pass is not a vaccination pass. It is obtained by a negative test, proof of recovery from Covid or a vaccine. It is this same pass which currently prevails to enter hospitals, retirement homes or establishments for the disabled. But this measure could only be taken if the current legal framework for exiting the state of health emergency were voted again after July 31.

The mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi awkwardly shared false information on Monday June 27: “I have information that the vaccine pass could be reactivated from August 1. Naturally, everyone will do what they want to do, but it is our duty to all of us to set an example”, he announced during his presidency of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolitan Council.

Christian Estrosi’s entourage clarified to Le Parisien that in reality, the elected representative of Nice “wanted to talk about the border pass for those who travel, and not the health or vaccination pass at the restaurant”. The mayor of Nice was referring to the date which appears in the draft law which wishes to rehabilitate the health pass at the borders… But the sentence of Christian Estrosi, isolated without its context, has become viral on social networks like Twitter. Senator Bernard Jomier took charge of correcting the situation on his Twitter account:

From August 1, the government should therefore have a new text adopted by Parliament if it wants to be able to apply the health pass, and not the vaccine, at the borders.

The draft law on the health pass, authenticated by AFP, authorizes the Prime Minister to impose by decree the presentation of a health pass from the age of 12 to “move to or from French territory , Corsica or one of the overseas communities. This border pass could also apply “to personnel working in the transport services concerned”, specifies an article of the Parisian.

This draft bill “has been sent to the Council of State in recent days” and “will be the subject of discussions, before its presentation to the Council of Ministers, with the political forces, as we have always done”, says the Ministry of Health.

In which places is the health pass currently maintained?

Since March 14, 2022, the health pass has been maintained only in retirement homes, nursing homes, hospitals and establishments welcoming people with disabilities, “except in the event of an emergency”, for all patients or accompanying persons. It should be noted that the vaccination obligation remains the rule for caregivers.

Access to health establishments and medico-social services is conditional on the health pass (complete vaccination schedule, negative test for Covid-19 or certificate of recovery) for patients and accompanying persons, except of course in emergencies, where no pass is required. is asked.

From what age does the health pass apply?

The health pass applies to French people from the age of 12, only to go to health establishments, establishments welcoming people with disabilities or the elderly or medico-social establishments.

There are three possibilities for obtaining the health pass: the first is to have a complete vaccination schedule. It consists of two doses required for the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca vaccines, only one dose for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, to which a booster dose is added 4 months after the 2nd injection, except for people who have already contracted Covid-19, or minors. It is also necessary to respect the immunity period after the last injection (7 days for Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, 28 days for Johnson & Johnson). The second is to have a Covid-19 recovery certificate less than 4 months old. Finally, for those who do not wish to be vaccinated, the presentation of a PCR or antigenic test of less than 24 hours is necessary.

What tests to obtain a valid health pass?

PCR, antigen or self-tests under the supervision of a health professional for 24 hours from the date of collection, it is possible to obtain a health pass. These tests are free for French people who have a complete vaccination schedule and for “minors, those with a contraindication to vaccination, those identified in the context of contact tracing made by Health Insurance or TousAntiCovid or even those with a medical prescription or having a certificate of recovery of less than six months”, specifies the Directorate General of Health. Only people who have not been vaccinated or whose vaccination schedule is not complete have to pay 3.35 euros for a self-test carried out in a pharmacy, 20 euros for an antigen test or 44 euros for a PCR test.