The Council of State says yes to the vaccination obligation of caregivers. The bill also provided for the presentation of the health pass at the entrance of large shopping centers, as well as fines in the event of non-compliance with these rules, these two aspects were mitigated by the Council of State.

The text, in which also appears the extension of the health pass to cafes, restaurants or even in trains, was examined on the evening of July 19 in the Council of Ministers before starting its course in Parliament on July 20.

Read also: Covid: five questions on the European health pass

Shopping centers and health pass

In its opinion delivered on Monday 19 and consulted by AFP, the Council of State therefore underlines that the presentation of a health pass in shopping centers is “likely to particularly concern the acquisition of essential goods, in particular food “.

The court sees it as “a disproportionate infringement of freedoms”, in particular for people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and who will therefore have to be “tested very regularly” to access these centers. The executive had proposed Sunday to limit this obligation to structures over 20,000 m2.

Review of sanctions

In addition, the fine for failure to control the health pass has been reduced to 1,000 euros, instead of a fine of 9,000 euros.

This relaxation is the result of discussions between the executive and the Council of State: the court had deemed disproportionate the first version of the government which therefore returned its copy by a corrective referral.

The Council of State however validated the sanction of one year in prison and a 9,000 euros fine, in the event of four verbalizations within 30 days. And it will amount to 45,000 euros for legal persons from the fifth verbalization.

Isolation and controls

Mandatory 10-day isolation for people infected with Covid-19 has for its part been approved by the Council of State. However, the National Academy of Medicine, in a communicated dated July 19, is not in favor. She believes that this could encourage “bypassing the screening procedures”.

But in its opinion, the Council of State “recommends to specify expressly (…) that the controls cannot take place at night time”. The government has therefore retained the “time terminal” of 9:00 p.m.

The Council of State suggests adding to the bill that isolation “ceases to apply before the expiry of the ten-day period if a new test carried out shows that the interested parties are no longer positive” for Covid- 19.