PARIS

After heated debates and fierce opposition, the French national assembly on Thursday adopted the bill to transform health pass into vaccine pass that seeks to prohibit entry into public places to unvaccinated people. 

Lawmakers approved the bill with 214 votes in favor, 93 against, and 27 abstentions. It will head to the Senate next week before seeking the final approval from the parliament. 

If it receives the final nod in time, new measures will come into effect from Jan 15. 

Under the vaccine pass, anyone above the age of 12 years will be required to prove their complete vaccination status in order to access restaurants, cafes and bars, transport, cinemas, sports centers and other public venues etc. A negative PCR test will no longer be accepted. 

The bill is a part of the Macron government’s strategy to coerce the 5.3 million unvaccinated people towards getting jabbed. 

As the daily COVID-19 cases continue to top new records reaching an overwhelming high figure of 300,000 positive infections this week, President Emmanuel Macron held the unvaccinated responsible for the dire health situation. 

His remark that he wants to “piss off” the unvaccinated with the vaccine pass kicked off a political storm and was severely criticized by the right-wing political parties in the national assembly.