Paris has announced it will lift its mandate that came into force this week once the number of inpatients has fallen to allow elective surgery. (Bloomberg)
France’s government will lift its vaccine pass, which came into effect this week and prevents unvaccinated people from taking part in most social activities, once the number of hospital patients has fallen sufficiently to allow elective surgery to resume.
Even though the Omicron variant isn’t having as much of an impact on hospitals as prior strains, the occupation rate of beds remains high, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Nine million unboosted French people are set to lose access to their vaccine passes on February 15
Olivier Véran, France’s Minister of Health, has said that nine million unboosted individuals could lose access to their vaccine passes as rules regarding the regime change on February 15.
Vaccine Passes have already begun expiring for all vaccinated French over the age of 18 who have not received a booster, with documents of those who have failed to receive an extra jab having previously been set to expire seven months after their last dose.
However, according to Minister Véran, nine million unboosted people in the country are now in danger of losing their passes on February 15, when rules regarding the grace period between doses are set to shorten to only four months.
“There are still nine million French people, who on February 15, if they do not receive vaccine injections, could lose the benefit of the pass,” La Chaîne Info reports the minister as saying. “That’s a lot.”