Tens of thousands of health passes should be deactivated for lack of a reminder of the anti-Covid vaccine on Saturday, the deadline set by the government, against the backdrop of new demonstrations by opponents of this device and the vote on the controversial bill on the pass. ‘Assembly.
In theory, some 560,000 people are likely to lose their passes on Saturday, the health ministry told AFP on Friday evening. But the actual figure is difficult to determine.
If we exclude those who have been infected in the meantime (which extends the pass), some 15.9 million adults are supposed to have received their booster on Saturday, seven months after their previous injection. It is now a necessary condition to keep your pass.
According to the ministry, about 15.3 million of those people have made their recalls as of Thursday. But that doesn’t mean the remaining 560,000 will lose their passes on Saturday.
Among them, “there is a significant number who have presented an infection” without having yet notified it in the TousAntiCovid application, which extends the validity of their pass, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, explained on Wednesday before to test positive himself.
– “Standard” –
At the end of November, by opening the recall to all adults, the government announced that it would be compulsory to extend the health pass (which will soon be replaced by a vaccination pass). The authorities had set January 15 as the deadline for the deactivation of the passes, in the absence of a reminder or a certificate of reinstatement.
This does not mean that the booster must necessarily have been done before this date, which simply corresponds to the entry into force of the mechanism: from Saturday, the pass is deactivated for people who have not had a booster dose a maximum of seven months after the last injection (unless they have been infected in the meantime).
For those over 65 and people with comorbidities, who had access to the recall in September, this deadline was December 15.
“In mid-December, people were worried (…), and in fact you have not heard of jumping passes”, put Mr. Véran into perspective.
According to him, 98% of vaccinated people over the age of 65 had their booster seven months after their last injection. This proportion is “nearly 90%” three months after the last injection.
“The recall acceptability rate is enormous,” assured Mr. Véran, according to whom “recall is the rule, non-recall is the exception”.
On February 15, the deadline for carrying out its booster dose will increase to four months – and no longer seven – after the previous injection.
– Several processions –
In addition to the number of passes, the day of Saturday will also make it possible to count the opponents to this device, while the deputies adopted without surprise the controversial bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass at second reading on Saturday, after a night of debates which will continue in the Senate..
Like the previous Saturday, demonstrations are planned across France.
In total, 85,000 to 120,000 people are expected, including 9,000 to 14,000 in Paris, according to police sources.
Demonstration against the vaccine pass in Paris, January 8, 2022
© AFP – Christophe ARCHAMBAULT
In the capital, several processions will be organized. The biggest should be that of the Les Patriotes movement, of the pro-Frexit presidential candidate Florian Philippot, which will start at 2:00 p.m. from the Trocadero.
Other parades will take place at the initiative of “yellow vests”.
For the executive and law enforcement, one of the issues will be whether attendance is higher than the previous week.
In the wake of the declarations of Emmanuel Macron, decided to “annoy” the non-vaccinated, 105,200 demonstrators had been counted by the Ministry of the Interior throughout France, four times more than the 25,500 of the previous mobilization, on 18 December.
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