France: Thousands demonstrate against COVID 'health pass' for 12th consecutive weekend

Almost 48,000 people staged protests in cities across France against COVID-19 health passes, on Saturday, October 2.

News agency ANI, citing La Depeche newspaper reported that nearly 5,000 people marched in Paris alone. This was the 12th Saturday in a row that protests were organised in various cities including Paris, against the Macron government's health pass amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, the number of protestors have been steadily falling as around 64,000 people demonstrated across the country last Saturday, of whom 7,200 had gathered in Paris.

Criticising the government for mandating COVID-19 health passes, the protestors said that move will restrict the rights of the unvaccinated citizens in the country. They blamed the French government for making vaccines obligatory by resorting to the system, and called it 'unfair'. The protesters believe that things like "health pass" and "vaccine passport" will give a rise to discrimination in society as people will be looked at under two different categories - the vaccinated and non vaccinated.

France's COVID-19 health passes

In July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a slew of new COVID-19 restrictions, including a special health pass, which shows a person's vaccination status as well as different other COVID-related statuses. The health pass has now been made mandatory to access restaurants and cafes, bars, shopping centres, aeroplanes, cultural venues, sports arenas, and long-distance travel by trains.

However, polls have shown that, despite the protests, the majority of Frech people are in support of the health pass. Notably, since President Macron announced the measure on July 12, millions have reportedly taken the first jab of the vaccine. 

France vows to double vaccine shipments to poorer countries

It should be mentioned here that on September 26, during Global Citizen's 'VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World' in Paris, President Macron revealed that he will double the vaccine shipments to poorer countries to 120 million. World leaders from the United States, France, Spain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and others had gathered at the programme and urged for global solidarity and vaccination equity.

Macron's pledge comes after the US declared that it will increase its contribution of COVID-19 vaccine doses to financially disadvantaged countries from 1.1 billion to 1.2 billion. US President Joe Biden declared at the Paris event that he will provide an additional 60 million doses to underprivileged countries.

Meanwhile, Spain agreed to provide 7.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines during the VAX LIVE event, which represents 5% to 10% of its overall supply. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also agreed to provide an additional 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines to countries across the world. 

(With inputs from ANI, Image: AP/ANI)