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COVID-19 VACCINES

Four million French get vaccinated in two weeks since Macron’s announcement on health passports

The number of people in France who have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has crossed the 40-million mark, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

Four million French get vaccinated in two weeks since Macron's announcement on health passports
Photo: Pascal Pochard Casablanca/AFP

After four million people received vaccines over the past two weeks, some 60 percent of the population are now partly or fully vaccinated, Macron tweeted during an official visit in French Polynesia.

In total 40 million people have had at least one dose and 33 million are fully vaccinated.

In the 15 days since Macron’s announcement that health passports will become compulsory for a wide range of venues including cafés and restaurants – and the announcement that vaccination will become compulsory for health workers – nearly 6 million people have booked an appointment and 4 million have already had their first dose.

READ ALSO Health passport: What changes in France on August 1st?

“All together, we will beat the virus. We will carry on,” he said.

The announcement comes a day after France’s parliament voted to formally adopt the extension of the health passport.

Vaccine passports have encountered fierce opposition from some, who believe they erode civil liberties. At weekend protests against the rules, over 160,000 people rallied and dozens were arrested.

France recorded almost 23,000 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, twice as many as the previous week, as the Delta variant caused a surge.

But the number of intensive care cases has dropped dramatically from its peak in April, with the government crediting the improvement to the accelerating vaccination rollout.

According to health minister Olivier Véran, 96 percent of those in hospital with the most serious forms of the virus are not fully vaccinated.

IN NUMBERS; Cases, hospitalisations and deaths in France’s fourth wave of Covid

Member comments

  1. My wife is still waiting for the local chemist to get the vaccine in and has been for the last two weeks!

    1. Make an appointment at a vaccine centre with, e.g., Doctolib.
      Depending on local demand, etc., you may even be able to make an appointment for the next day (I was able to do this), plus an appointment for the second jab.

      It’s good to hear your partner wants to be vaccinated, but (albeit obviously depending somewhat on your location) a vaccine centre is quite possibly a way of being jabbed sooner.

      And have you been vaccinated yet?

      1. Thanks for advice but I had janssen vaccine two months ago, wife is waiting for chemist to get supply in.

  2. Why not go to a vaccination centre? Appointments enough and if not locally drive a few more kilometers. By now there is no excuse not to be vaccinated for anyone over 50 who wanted it, as there have been plenty of time and opportunities. Unless you choose not to, that’s another matter, and choise.

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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.

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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