No return to the past, but a possible “certificate”.
Senators adopted the health bill in committee on Tuesday, after having explicitly provided for the repeal of restrictions on freedoms in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic and restored a limited possibility of using a "health certificate" at borders and overseas. .
The text thus rewritten on the initiative of the rapporteur LR Philippe Bas will be examined on Wednesday at first reading in the hemicycle of the Luxembourg Palace, dominated by the right-wing opposition.
In the National Assembly last week, the bill had been amputated from its key article on the possible return of an anti-Covid health pass for entries into France, by a conjunction of votes from the RN, from LR and a majority of the left alliance Nupes.
The Senate Laws Committee voted on Tuesday the six amendments proposed by Philippe Bas.
The text would thus be renamed “bill putting an end to the exceptional regimes created to fight against the epidemic linked to Covid-19”.
It would repeal formally, and no longer only implicitly, the derogatory regimes, implying “the definitive end” of measures such as confinement, curfew or sanitary pass, Philippe Bas told AFP.
A “travel certificate”
The senators restored in committee, in a much more restrictive wording, article 2 which provided for the possibility, if necessary, of restoring a health pass for “extra-hexagonal” trips.
The new article proposes two distinct devices, the rapporteur preferring to speak of “travel health certificate” to clearly signify the disappearance of the health pass, as it was in force in restaurants or other public places.
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The first concerns travelers from foreign countries.
In the event of the appearance of a new, particularly dangerous variant of Covid, the government could impose the presentation of a negative screening test on boarding.
A second similar device could apply for trips to overseas communities “in the event of a risk of saturation” of their health system.
Corsica is no longer mentioned.
Towards the reintegration of unvaccinated caregivers?
Another amendment concerns the sensitive issue of the possible reintegration of unvaccinated caregivers.
It provides for the obligation to vaccinate healthcare personnel to be suspended as soon as it is no longer justified in view of the evolution of the epidemic or “medical and scientific knowledge”.
Consequently, the personnel subject to this vaccination obligation and suspended because not vaccinated would then be “immediately reinstated”.
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According to a source in the majority, it is not possible to "stay on something wobbly" without the article on health protection at the borders.
"We must find an elegant way out for politicians", but "without compromise", we add.
Once adopted at first reading by the Senate in session, the text will have to be agreed between deputies and senators on Thursday.
If there is agreement, the text will still have to be voted on one last time by the two chambers.
In case of failure, a new reading will be organized, the National Assembly having the last word.
