France is to relax some COVID-19 restrictions from early next month in a bet that an outbreak of the Omicron variant of SARS-COV-2 would recede thanks to faster inoculations and plans to shut the unvaccinated out of most social activities.
The French government is to lift the obligation to work from home at least three days a week from Feb. 2, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.
It would also remove a requirement to wear a mask outdoors, and scrap attendance limits for sports arenas and cultural venues, Castex said.
Photo: AFP
Infections with the Delta variant are “clearly receding,” while the spread of the less-dangerous Omicron variant has already peaked in some regions, including Paris, Castex told reporters in the French capital.
The country expects its COVID-19 vaccine pass to be implemented from Monday — assuming that it gets approved by the French Constitutional Council.
That means that people aged 16 or older would need to be fully inoculated to enter restaurants, attend the theater or get on an airplane. Currently, a negative test result is enough.
The changes come after French President Emmanuel Macron took his aggressive stance against the unvaccinated up a notch earlier this month, saying he wants to “piss off” people who do not get their shot.
About 91 percent of France’s adult population is fully vaccinated, Castex said.
The vaccine pass might be suspended at a later stage when hospitals are not strained by the pandemic anymore, the government has said.
France recorded 425,183 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, an 8.5 percent drop from a record set on Tuesday.
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