French MPs approve continued use of Covid health pass through July 2022
French lawmakers on Friday approved the continued use of the country’s health pass – a paper or digital certificate that shows a person has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or has recently tested negative for or recovered from the disease – as a requirement for entrance to certain public spaces until July 31, 2022.
The continued use of the health pass, which is currently required in places such as restaurants, bars and cinemas, was backed by 118 votes with 89 against and one abstention. The approval is part of wider legislation related to extending the country’s state of health emergency in its fight against Covid-19.
Ahead of the vote, Jean-Pierre Pont of President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party, the author of the bill, urged lawmakers not to “let their guard down” amid a spike in European Covid-19 infections, citing the World Health Organization’s recent warning that up to half a million people on the continent could die of the disease by February.
Critics of the bill accuse Macron of “authoritarianism” since the health pass extension will be in place through France’s presidential elections in May.
