This is the end of a legislative process in several episodes.
Parliament definitively adopted the health bill on Tuesday after a final vote by the Senate, by 209 votes against 30. Rewritten by the right, this text explicitly puts an end on August 1 to the health pass and other exceptional measures against the Covid-19.
But it provides for a possible compulsory test at the borders.
The first bill thus validated under the new legislature, this text bears the mark of the new parliamentary configuration which obliges the government to seek agreements beyond the presidential majority, in particular with Les Républicains, the first group in the Senate.
It was voted for the last time on Monday by the National Assembly, in its version issued by the Senate after a first passage in the Assembly.
The Senate version had been approved by a joint committee of deputies and senators.
The left denounced an agreement reached in advance between the presidential majority and LR.
In the hemicycle of the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the National Assembly, the vote was won by 184 votes against 149. The PS and LR groups voted for with the majority, the RN, LFI, communist and LIOT groups (independent ) speaking out against and environmentalists choosing to abstain.
Negative test instead of health pass
“Faced with an unprecedented political situation (…) we have no other choice to move our country forward than to reach compromises while respecting everyone's convictions”, declared the Minister of Health François Braun.
The bill provides for the express repeal from August 1 of the emergency regimes: state of emergency and management of the health crisis.
The only reservation is that the government may impose, in very specific cases, a negative screening test when boarding in the direction of French territory and for overseas trips.
The measure is very different from what the government had initially planned.
Opposition from right and left had inflicted a serious setback on him, by rejecting a possible health pass at the borders from or to abroad, but also between France, Corsica and the overseas territories,
The travel health certificate could only be activated for international travel in the event of the appearance of a particularly dangerous variant of Covid-19 in a country.
For trips to overseas communities, this would be in the event of a risk of hospital saturation.
Two points were particularly discussed: the age of application, from 12 years old, and especially the fact that the senators only retained as a valid document the negative screening test.
A vaccination or cure certificate is no longer admissible.
Socialists and centrists regretted a bad message in terms of public health vis-à-vis vaccination, some even castigating a gesture towards antivax.
Open door to the reintegration of unvaccinated caregivers
Another very controversial point is the question of the reintegration of unvaccinated caregivers.
The Senate has "created a path towards the reintegration" of suspended personnel, in the words of its rapporteur, who again pleads pragmatism.
According to the text, the vaccination obligation for caregivers will be suspended as soon as the High Authority for Health (HAS) deems that it is no longer justified, and non-vaccinated caregivers will then be "immediately reinstated".
The HAS took the lead on Friday, saying it was "in favor of maintaining the obligation to vaccinate personnel working in health and medico-social establishments".
Finally, the text makes it possible to extend the tools for monitoring the SI-DEP and Contact Covid epidemic.
The national screening information system (SI-DEP), which centralizes all test results, is extended until June 30, 2023, so that the French can easily access the certificates allowing them to travel to Europe.
This is done with the consent of the persons concerned.
Contact Covid, which provides follow-up and support for infected people and their contact cases, has been extended until January 31, 2023.
