French Parliament Approves Certificate for Inocation

Lawmakers in the lower House of Parliament voted by 215 votes, with 58 against, paving the way for law entry in the coming days, Reuters follows.

The new law, which had a hard road in parliament with opposition parties that consider some of its very difficult provisions, will require people to have a vaccine certificate to enter public places such as restaurants, cafes, cinemas and long-term trains.

Currently, uninoculated persons can enter such places with the results of a recent negative test for COVID-19. Nearly 78% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health.

President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to request a second mandate in the April presidential elections, told Parisen this month that he wanted to replace “the unaccompanied people by complicating their lives so much that they would end up taking the vaccine against COVID.

Thousands of protesters against the vaccine demonstrated in Paris and several other cities on Saturday, but their numbers dropped significantly from a week ago, shortly after Macron's comments.

France is in control of its fifth wave COVID-19, with new daily cases regularly reaching record levels of over 300,000. However, the number of serious cases people place in the ICU departments is much lower than the first wave in March-April 2020.