From Monday, March 14, vaccination passes and mask-wearing requirements will be eliminated from the majority of public venues in France, confirms Prime Minister Jean Castex.

The vaccine pass system, which presently only enables persons who have been completely vaccinated against Covid or who have recently recovered from the virus to enter, will be phased out “in every place where it is applied.”

In medical and care institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes, however, health pass requirements will remain in effect.

This means that instead of vaccine or recovery records, a negative Covid test result from the previous 24 hours might be presented.

Vaccination requirements for employees in these establishments, however, will continue in effect.

“Anywhere where they are still required,” masks will no longer be compulsory. This means they’ll be optional in all indoor settings, including schools, presumably.

Masks will, however, remain mandatory in public transportation and medical or care-related environments such as hospitals.

During an interview today with TF1 this afternoon, the Prime Minister announced the changes.

“The situation is improving thanks to our collective efforts and the measures we have taken,” Jean Castex said.

Health Minister Olivier Véran has previously highlighted the parameters that must be met in order to relax the vaccine pass rules, predicting that this will be feasible by mid-March.

The three criteria taken into consideration while making this decision were: 

• Having less than 1,500 Covid patients in intensive care units, “which will indicate that hospitals are back to normal.” There are 2,329 patients in intensive care right now.
•  Having a rate of infection of 300-500 cases per 100,000 individuals, “which will show that the country has clearly moved on from the worst.” The current infection rate in France is 584 per 100,000.
•  Having a R rate of less than 1 (which represents the average number of secondary infections produced by a single sick person). The R rate in France is now 0.63.

As a result, while not all of these conditions have been reached at this time, infection rates and hospital pressure continue to fall, implying that by March 14, the situation will allow vaccine rules to be lifted.

The infection rate has dropped by 30% in the last week.

– India’s new age travel digital media