Without a pass, no shopping! The health pass becomes compulsory in at least 126 shopping centers and department stores in metropolitan France.
Photo Credits: © Shutterstock / Nattakorn_Maneerat
The need for a health pass is spreading to more and more places. From August 16, access to shopping centers and stores over 20,000 square meters may be subject to presentation of a health pass. For the moment, the centers concerned are all in the southern half of France and in the Paris region.
Paris is also affected by this measure, although the incidence rate is below the threshold set by the government (200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per week). “If the overall incidence rate remains slightly below 200 per 100,000 inhabitants, it is much higher in the age groups of 10 to 39 years”, justifies the prefecture.
The department stores concerned
The five Parisian department stores (Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, BHV, Le Bon Marché and la Samaritaine) and three shopping centers in the capital will therefore have to request the pass at the entrance. The Aéroville center, near Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport, is also concerned.
Four departments in the Parisian suburbs (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val d’Oise, Val-de-Marne and Hauts-de-Seine) have also decided to apply this new measure in 32 supermarkets, including Ikea stores.
The other departments where the health pass will be compulsory from Monday are Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Charente-Maritime, Corse-du-Sud, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Hérault , the Landes, the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Rhône, Haute-Savoie, Var, and Vaucluse.
Guarantee access to basic necessities
The decision to introduce a health pass remains in the hands of the prefects. But according to the law validated last week by the Constitutional Council, the pass cannot be required if it compromises “people’s access to basic goods and services as well as to means of transport”.
In other words, in certain large shopping centers housing supermarkets, access cannot be conditioned on the presentation of a pass. But the map of the centers concerned remains to be drawn up: the exemption will only apply if there are enough supermarkets, greengrocers, pharmacies, etc. outside the shopping centers of the city or the department concerned.
A contested measure
The entry into force of this measure, a real logistical headache for the places concerned, is already causing controversy, while anti-health pass demonstrations continue to gather.
This weekend, 215,000 people still march against the health pass. An unprecedented mobilization for a weekend of August 15, even if the number of demonstrators was slightly down compared to the previous weekend.
