PARIS (REUTERS) - France could ease health pass restrictions that are hurting the activity of large shopping malls if the Covid-19 epidemic situation keeps improving, Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Saturday (Sept 4).

"The health situation is improving. If this is confirmed, we will be able to ease the rules," Ms Borne told France Inter radio, adding that this could be decided "in the coming days".

French retail group Auchan has said the introduction in early August of a health pass that customers must show in shopping malls with a surface area of more than 20,000 sq m hit its business at the start of the third quarter.

France, where the daily average Covid-19 contagion rate has slowed, is battling a fourth wave of the pandemic, and the government aims to administer a third vaccine shot to some 18 million people by early 2022, a Health Ministry official said on Tuesday.

France's top health advisory body recommended a booster shot for those aged 65 and over, and for those with existing medical conditions that put them at risk.

Government data shows that nearly 72 per cent of the total French population had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as at Aug 30.

A little more than 65 per cent had received two doses or one dose after having been diagnosed with Covid-19.