Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : July 27, 2021 1:43 PM IST
Image credits by: President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters photo)
From now on, people in France will be required to produce proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from Covid-19 to enter most museums and cinemas, under new coronavirus rules. The Government of France has rolled out a new Covid-19 health pass amid a surge in the number of new infections apparently caused by the highly contagious Delta variant.
The rules became effective from Wednesday. The country's lawmakers will debate whether the Covid-19 health pass should be made compulsory for entry to cafes, restaurants and shopping malls next month.
Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron had announced the plans for a health pass and compulsory vaccination for all health workers by September. But people in France are not happy with the new coronavirus rules. There had been protests against Macron's announcement, with demonstrators vandalising two vaccination centres this week, media reported.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Olivier Veran told the National Assembly that France recorded 18,000 new infections in just 24 hours, a surge of 150 per cent compared to last week when the country saw fewer than 7,000 cases. He said that the Delta variant, which has spread throughout the country, had led to far more cases than previous variants, like those first spotted in the UK or South Africa.
Delta variant (or B.1.617.2 strain) was primarily responsible for the second wave of Covid-19 in India, according to Dr NK Arora, co-chair of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). First identified in October 2020 in India, the variant accounts for over 80 per cent of new Covid-19 cases today, he told a news agency on Monday.
Citing studies by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), he assured that the vaccines currently in use for the immunisation program in India are effective against the variant.
Dr Arora underscored that vaccination and following Covid appropriate behaviour are the need of the hour to manage the pandemic, as well as to control and delay future waves of the disease. But there is widespread vaccine hesitancy in India. Should India enforce similar coronavirus rules like in France to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and to curb the Covid-19 cases.
India should also consider this and implement it right away, said Dr. Bipin Jibhkate, Consultant critical care medicine, and ICU director Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road, Mumbai.
"French President Emmanuel Macron said that people will have to use a COVID-19 "health passport" to get into nonessential places. The health passport can show one of three things that are vaccination status, a recent negative Covid test, or a recent recovery from Covid. You need to be able to prove one of these three things to access venues listed as requiring a health passport. This move should be welcomed with open arms," he told TheHealthSite.
"If this is not done, then the cases will rise at a rapid rate. This is a great decision by France. In India, a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test was mandatory before entering the mall. Now, this health passport program will be helpful in curbing the Covid-19 cases. This will also encourage more and more people to get jabbed and flatten the Covid curve," he added.
However, Dr. Seshi Kiran K, Consultant Physician,Yashoda Hospitals, Somajiguda, Hyderabad, opined that the logistics of implementing such rules in India may be difficult.
"According to ICMR data from yesterday, more that 60% of people in the country have Covid antibodies but a majority of them do not have documentary proof. A negative PCR test is not a sensitive method to rule out active infection as 25-30% of infected patients are false negative. The spread of the virus mutant strains is not helping the cause. With all these technical and logistical issues, implementing it in India may not be practical," Dr. Seshi told TheHealthSite.
"If it can be implemented, it definitely will help in reducing the infectivity but the compliance in our population could be very poor. Enforcing these set of rules is not practical although it may be a scientific way," he added.
Instead, he suggested that the better way in a country like India will be to implement Covid appropriate behaviour in the society.
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