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READER QUESTIONS

Reader question: Are NHS vaccination certificates still valid on the French health pass?

Several readers who were vaccinated in the UK have told of their French health passes suddenly being deactivated - here's what is happening.

Scanning French health pass
The health pass is required to access a wide variety of venues in France. Photo: Pascal Pochard Casablanca/AFP

Question: I was vaccinated in the UK but regularly spend time in France – last night a waiter scanned my French health pass and told me it was no longer valid. What’s going on?

Since the summer the English, Welsh and Scottish NHS codes have been compatible with the French Tous Anti Covid app, which hosts the French health pass. This means that anyone vaccinated in Britain can scan their NHS QR code directly into the French app and have a working health pass for access to venues including bars, cafés, tourist sites, leisure centres and long-distance train travel. Find full details on how to upload the code HERE.

However in recent days, several readers have reported that their French health pass has suddenly stopped working.

There are two things to consider here.

1 Time-limited NHS codes – once you are fully vaccinated in the UK, the NHS app generates a QR code. However, this code is only valid for 30 days. 

This was not previously a problem with the French app, but since Tous Anti Covid began deactivating passes for people who have not had a booster, it seems to have begun to recognise the 30-day limit on these codes.

Your vaccination certificate will therefore display as ‘expired’ in the Tous Anti Covid app, meaning that any employee scanning it at a bar, restaurant etc. will receive a message saying that your health pass is not valid.

Therefore people vaccinated in the UK need to download a new NHS code every 30 days, and scan it into the French app in order to keep it functional.

2 Boosters –  as mentioned above, health passes are beginning to be deactivated for people who are eligible for a booster but do not receive it.

This was first announced as something that only affected those vaccinated in France, with tourists and visitors initially being told that their passes would be unaffected.

However, several readers with a UK vaccination certificate have reported receiving a warning that their pass will deactivate seven months after their second dose – the same rule as already in place for those vaccinated in France.

The Local has requested clarification on the rules for travellers from within the EU and non-EU countries.

In order to keep the health pass activated, you will therefore need to get a booster – either in the UK if that is your place of residence or in France if you have moved countries in between getting the vaccination and the booster. 

If you use the TousAntiCovid app you will get a warning a couple of weeks before the pass deactivated.

Those who use paper certificates will not get the warning, so it is up to them to remember their vaccination date and get the booster in time. 

Member comments

  1. My Brother-in-Law had his first two jabs in the UK. These were eventually uploaded onto Tous Anti Covid, and the Passe Sanitaire worked perfectly…until he had his booster here in France.
    On uploading his QR code for the booster the passe sanitaire failed to be recognised in restaurants!!
    This was only resolved by a member of staff at the local vaccination centre. Quite what they did I’m not sure, but it now works!!

  2. Can you get a booster without a carte vitale? I’m still waiting on mine – was double vaccinated in New Zealand over six months ago and just got the expiration warning on TousAntiCovid

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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