First vaccinated, first spared from facemask-wearing. Olivier Véran has given hope to the French tired of wearing a mask for over a year: this Tuesday July 13, on France 2 news broadcast, the Health Minister announced vaccinees will soon be able to "ditch facemasks" in places "subject to health pass".
Yet, Véran gave no date, but guarantees the government was planning to lift this constraint soon.
"The health pass enables to gather 10, 50, 200, 1,000 people inside or outside, where all people around are protected through vaccine, or hold a recent negative test - taken in the last 48 hours. Therefore, we could progressively lift the facemask constraint in arenas, leading to all leisure venues at the end", the minister announced.
"The Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique has advised us", Olivier Véran states. Before lifting facemask-wearing, the government wishes "to check the Delta variant has not deeply change things."
This exemption is part of the "civicism bonus" described earlier by Gabriel Attal: vaccinees will get fewer constraints and restrictions than non-vaccinees.
This Sunday April 25, 2021, the French Public Health Council (HCSP) unveils new recommendations for people already vaccinated. According to the body, people vaccinated no longer have to wear a facemask in the private sphere. This good news remains subject to a few crucial conditions: only in the private sphere, in compliance with health guidelines, and health rules we all know for over a year now.
Furthermore, if someone is considered “at risk” is living in this private sphere, the HCSP’s recommendation is not to be taken into account. If the person at risk has been vaccinated as well, it is no longer needed to wear a mask. Same thing is someone vaccinated showing no risk lives with you. Among the other recommendations from the institution, it is possible to include people vaccinated in the “contract tracing” policy. Therefore, even vaccinated people are still considered as “contacts at risk even though this risk is probably smaller”, the HCSP claimed.
Furthermore, the French Public Health Council would rather warn the French on an essential topic of the upcoming health policy: no matter if someone has been vaccinated or not, it is vital to remain extremely cautious anyway. “It is impossible to assess the risk for people who have enjoyed a complete vaccinal scheme of contaminating other people”, the body reminds. So far, “the weak vaccine coverage” and the “uncertainty” related to variants incite to be cautious.
