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COVID-19 VACCINES

Three million people book vaccinations in France as Macron announces Covid restrictions

Record numbers of French people sought to book appointments for Covid-19 vaccinations after President Emmanuel Macron announced a slew of measures on Monday designed to push sceptics to get themselves jabbed.

Published: 13 July 2021 08:23 CEST
Updated: 15 July 2021 18:02 CEST
Three million people book vaccinations in France as Macron announces Covid restrictions
Medical staff prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP.

Almost 3.2 million people have signed up for their first dose since Macron’s TV address on Monday, according to calculations by Le Parisien. 2.6 million have taken appointments using the Doctolib website alone, of which 62 percent were under 35 years old.

In an address to the nation, Macron announced that from next month anyone wanting to go out to eat or drink, take a long-distance train or visit a shopping centre will need to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test.

The pass sanitaire (health passport)  will also be needed to attend a festival, a theatre show or a cinema screening as part of the government’s strategy to tackle the surging number of new cases linked to the Delta variant.

The vaccine will also be compulsory from September 15th for healthcare workers and people who volunteer with the elderly or vulnerable.

“You will have understood that vaccination is not obligatory straight away, but we are going to extend the health pass to its maximum to encourage as many of you as possible to get yourselves vaccinated,” Macron said.

The prospect of having to take a test for every meal or drink out appeared to have an instant impact on many unvaccinated people, with the main websites used to book appointments for a jab reporting a surge in visits.

READ ALSO France to tackle fourth Covid wave with stricter border controls, health passports and compulsory vaccines

The Doctolib site reported what it said was a record 20,000 appointments being taken every minute on Monday evening.

In total, 926,000 people made a vaccine appointment on Monday, most of them after 8pm, which was when Macron addressed the nation.

Covid tests, which are currently free, will have to be paid for from September “to encourage vaccination instead of taking many tests,” Macron added.

The huge surge in bookings prompted many French people to joke that only the threat of being barred from restaurants of cafés was enough to persuade the French to get vaccinated.

The below joke roughly translates as –

The French

‘You risk dying’

‘I don’t give a flying fuck’

‘You won’t be able to go to bistros’

‘Ok, injection in the buttock or the arm?’

Mandatory jabs

Macron also announced mandatory vaccinations for healthcare staff, retirement home workers and others working with vulnerable people from September in line with similar moves in Greece, Italy and Britain.

Health Minister Olivier Véran said that from September unvaccinated staff would not be allowed to work and would not be paid.

“Our country is facing a surge in the epidemic across our territory, in mainland France as well as overseas,” Macron said at the start of his address.

“The situation is under control, but if we do not act now the number of cases will increase significantly and will lead to a rise in
hospitalisations,” he said.

Calendar: France tightens the rules ahead of fourth wave of covid

Around 35.5 million people – just over half of France’s population – have received at least one vaccine dose so far, but the rate of injections has slowed in recent weeks.

At the start of the pandemic, France had some of the highest levels of vaccine scepticism in the developed world.

Full vaccination

The announcements represent a change in direction for the government after several months of progressively lifting restrictions and they underline the concern about the potential impact of a fourth wave of infections.

A panel of scientists who advise the French government on health matters warned last Friday that as many as 95 percent of people might need to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19.

“We need to head towards vaccinating every French person because it’s the only way of returning to a normal way of life,” Macron added, saying that the idea of making the jab mandatory for everyone would need to be studied.

The Delta strain of Covid-19, believed to be around 60 percent more infectious, already accounts for half of new infections in France.

The number of new cases in France has jumped to above 4,000 a day, according to the latest available official figures, although the number of deaths in hospital – four in the past 24 hours – is low.

Around 7,000 people with Covid are in hospital in France, around a quarter of the peak of the third wave in March-April.

Member comments

  1. If the vaccinations are so effective, the unvaccinated are only risking their own health. If they’re not effective, why the compulsion ?

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COVID-19 VACCINES

Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges on Thursday dismissed legal challenges to Italy's vaccine mandate as "inadmissible” and “unfounded”, as 1.9 million people face fines for refusing the jab.

Published: 2 December 2022 12:11 CET
Italy's constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges were asked this week to determine whether or not vaccine mandates introduced by the previous government during the pandemic – which applied to healthcare and school staff as well as over-50s – breached the fundamental rights set out by Italy’s constitution.

Italy became the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.

The Constitutional Court upheld the law in a ruling published on Thursday, saying it considered the government’s requirement for healthcare personnel to be vaccinated during the pandemic period neither unreasonable nor disproportionate.

Judges ruled other questions around the issue as inadmissible “for procedural reasons”, according to a court statement published on Thursday.

This was the first time the Italian Constitutional Court had ruled on the issue, after several regional courts previously dismissed challenges to the vaccine obligation on constitutional grounds.

A patient being administered a Covid jab.

Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP

One Lazio regional administrative court ruled in March 2022 that the question of constitutional compatibility was “manifestly unfounded”.

Such appeals usually centre on the question of whether the vaccine requirement can be justified in order to protect the ‘right to health’ as enshrined in the Italian Constitution.

READ ALSO: Italy allows suspended anti-vax doctors to return to work

Meanwhile, fines kicked in from Thursday, December 1st, for almost two million people in Italy who were required to get vaccinated under the mandate but refused.

This includes teachers, law enforcement and healthcare workers, and the over 50s, who face fines of 100 euros each under rules introduced in 2021.

Thursday was the deadline to justify non-compliance with the vaccination mandate due to health reasons, such as having contracted Covid during that period.

Italy’s health minister on Friday however appeared to suggest that the new government may choose not to enforce the fines.

“It could cost more for the state to collect the fines” than the resulting income, Health Minister Orazio Schillaci told Radio Rai 1.

He went on to say that it was a matter for the Economy and Finance Ministry, but suggested that the government was drawing up an amendment to the existing law.

READ ALSO: Covid vaccines halved Italy’s death toll, study finds

The League, one of the parties which comprises the new hard-right government, is pushing for fines for over-50s to be postponed until June 30th 2023.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had promised a clear break with her predecessor’s health policies, after her Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi’s government handled the pandemic in 2021 when it was in opposition.

At the end of October, shortly after taking office, the new government allowed doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to return to work earlier than planned after being suspended for refusing the Covid vaccine.

There has been uncertainty about the new government’s stance after the deputy health minister in November cast doubt on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, saying he was “not for or against” vaccination.

Italy’s health ministry continues to advise people in at-risk groups to get a booster jab this winter, and this week stressed in social media posts that vaccination against Covid-19 and seasonal flu remained “the most effective way to protect ourselves and our loved ones, especially the elderly and frail”.

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