France: green passes for bars, restaurants and public transport
To accelerate the vaccination campaign, France has decided to extend the green pass to access restaurants, cafes and [...]
To accelerate the vaccination campaign, the France decided to extend the green pass to access restaurants, cafes, and long-distance transportation such as trains and planes. Emmanuel Macron's choice has had the desired effect with more than a million French people responding to the appeal by booking a vaccine appointment in the coming days.
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The French president's move surprised the European Union, however, which has to reckon with the results in just a few days. The fear of being cut off from social life prompted so many young people to book their vaccines on the Doctolib online booking platform. As part of the measures taken to ward off the advance of the Delta variant, Macron announced that as of August 1, a green pass requirement will be triggered just to enter cafes, restaurants, and shopping malls, as well as, of course, on trains, long-distance buses, and aboard planes. According to Doctolib head Stanislas Niox-Chateau, the number of appointments made after the speech are "double the record day of May 11 and five times more than last Monday. We recorded seven million connections in a few minutes during the presidential speech.". 65% of registered appointments involve people under 35.
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France's choice, what to do upon return
There has been no shortage of criticism for those who are in fact talking about mandatory vaccination for anyone who wants to continue to lead a normal social life. It will in fact be need to show green pass with a certificate of complete vaccination, recent recovery from Covid or negative test to access restaurants, cafes and use long-distance transportation such as trains and planes. The measure also will be in effect as early as next week for many cultural venues then, from early August, for restaurants and transportation.
The new measures are likely to complicate tourists' vacations who wish to stay in France, in case they are not already vaccinated. Access to the territory is possible with a swab but they will then have to produce more whenever they want to go, for example, to a restaurant. According to current Italian regulations (and in effect until July 30), travel to/from France is allowed without the need for justification, that is, it is also permitted to travel there for tourism. Upon return, however, it is necessary to present Covid-19 green certification (green pass) from which it appears that:
- one has completed the prescribed anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine course for at least 14 days
- one is cured of Covid-19 (the validity of the certificate of cure is 180 days from the date of the first positive swab)
- one has undergone a molecular or antigenic swab performed within 48 hours prior to entry into Italy with negative results.
- Complete the Passenger Locator Form - Digital Locator Form - prior to entry into Italy. The form replaces the self-declaration made to the carrier
Italy's appreciation
After France's choice and the excellent feedback, Italy is also talking about Broaden the application of the green pass. Government sources explained that "it will be discussed and evaluated in the coming days." Health Undersecretary Pierpaolo Sileri proposes to do immediately as France did, applying the green pass "in earnest," no quarantine for those who received two doses, review the parameters within a week or two.
