Back in the National Assembly, two weeks after the heated debates at first reading. The health vigilance bill is again examined this Monday by the deputies, after the adoption of a modified version of the text by the Senate then the compromise found in the joint joint committee. The debates are supposed to start around 4 p.m., according to the agenda of the National Assembly. Only government amendments, or those it has accepted, can be debated.
If it is adopted by each of the two assemblies, the text can then be promulgated… in a version quite different from that initially planned by the government.
The border health pass, which the government wants to continue to be able to impose, was rejected during the first reading vote in the National Assembly – a snub for the presidential majority. The senators restored it in a more framed version. Only a negative test may be imposed on travelers coming from abroad in the event of the appearance of a new variant, as well as for trips from or to overseas communities “in the event of a risk of saturation” of their health. It is not a “sanitary pass” strictly speaking, since being vaccinated or having recently caught Covid will not be enough.
Unvaccinated caregivers still suspended
The text also extends the tools for monitoring the SI-DEP epidemic (until June 30, 2023) and Contact Covid (until January 31, 2023). It puts an end to the state of health emergency regime allowing the introduction of restrictions on freedoms, such as confinement, curfew or health pass on French soil. The Minister of Health François Braun, had praised on Twitter a “consensus in the service of the protection of the French”.
The last major element of the bill, added by senators and ultimately accepted by the majority, concerns unvaccinated caregivers. These may be reinstated on the advice of the High Authority for Health, “in view of the evolution of the epidemiological situation or of medical and scientific knowledge”.
« I do not see how the High Authority for Health could decide for the reintegration of caregivers, so this article is neutralized », had estimated Thursday the president of the commission of the Laws of the national Assembly, Sacha Houlié (Renaissance). The next day, the HAS also recommended maintaining the vaccination obligation for caregivers, “in view of the effectiveness of the vaccines and the uncertainties concerning the continuation of the epidemic”.