France vaccine pass mandate and the compulsory wearing of mask except in transport, is to be lifted on March 14, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday.
According to the Prime Minister, the vaccine mandate pass will however remain in force in medical establishments, such as hospitals and nursing homes, as well as the vaccination obligation which applies to caregivers.
The report by AFP, stated that faced with the improvement in the health situation linked to Covid, Jean Castex announced this Thursday on the 1 p.m. news on TF1, the suspension of the vaccination pass from Monday March 14 in France and the end of the wearing of the compulsory mask in the public places, except on public transport.
The health or vaccine mandate pass will however remain in force in medical establishments, such as hospitals and nursing homes, as well as the vaccination obligation which applies to caregivers, said the Prime Minister.
The government to arrive at this new relaxation, Olivier Véran had set several criteria a few days ago :
- have less than 1,500 Covid patients in intensive care “for us to consider that the normal functioning of hospitals has been restored” – there are today 2,329
- have an incidence rate between 300 and 500 at most “to be able to consider that we have really overcome the hardest part” – we are today at 584
- have a reproduction rate of the virus durably lower than 1 – it is today estimated at 0.63
The wave continues to decline in France
This relaxation of the rules comes at a time when the winter wave of Covid-19 continues its decline that began several weeks ago.
This Wednesday, Public Health France announced that it had registered 57,697 new cases in 24 hours. With this figure, the seven-day average, which gives an idea of the real evolution of the epidemic, declines to 53,152 cases against 54,457 the day before (and more than 70,000 seven days ago).
The incidence remains high despite everything, at 584 – well beyond the old alert thresholds set by the government at the start of the epidemic, but the Omicron variant, if it is more contagious, causes fewer severe forms.
The pressure is thus reduced in the hospital. A total of 23,840 patients are hospitalized with Covid, including 2,329 in critical care, these two figures being down from the previous day. The previous Wednesday, hospitals had 26,991 patients, including 2,753 in critical care.