What's in the detail of France's controversial health pass extension?

France's Constitutional Council has validated most aspects of a new law which, starting next week, requires people to carry a special Covid-19 health pass to access cafés, restaurants, long-distance travel and, in some cases, hospitals. However it struck down several measures for not meeting constitutional requirements.

The entrance of the Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel), in Paris. © LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP

Adressing certains aspects of the health pass that have sparked increasingly vitriolic protests from opponents over the past weeks, the Constitutional Council ruled on  Thursday that the automatic 10-day isolation of people infected with the virus, allowed to go outside for only two hours per day, goes against French freedoms.

Such deprivation of liberty is not “necessary, adapted or proportional,” the ruling said. The current, less strict 10-day self-isolation for people infected with the virus will apparently remain in effect. 

Loi sanitaire : vaccination obligatoire, extension du pass, licenciements... Ce qui est censuré et ce qui est validé par le Conseil constitutionnel

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The court also struck down the suspension of short-term contracts for those without a health pass — while accepting a suspension without remuneration of salaried employees with long-term contracts.

The legislation was rushed through parliament last week as Covid infections soared across France, due to the highly contagious delta variant which now accounts for most cases in the country.

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Starting Monday, it will be required for long-distance travel by train, plane or bus, entering restaurants, cafés and their terraces and rest homes — among a long list laid out in the law and approved in the ruling.

The special court appeared to wince at the regulations but decided that overall a balance was struck between freedom and “the constitutional value of health protection.”

The Council also approved obliging health care workers to be vaccinated against the virus by 15 September. And it ruled that requiring the health pass for hospital visitors and others is justified — if it “doesn't create an obstacle to accessing health care.”