French shopping malls join other venues requiring health pass for entry

PARIS • Shopping malls in Paris and large parts of France have to ask customers to show a health pass, as the government increased pressure on people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

The requirement to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result applies to all malls with a surface area of more than 20,000 sq m in places where the Covid-19 incidence rate is higher than 200 cases per 100,000 citizens per week.

This will mainly affect retail centres in the south of the country - which has a higher incidence rate - but following a regional prefecture decision over the weekend, the measure will also apply to malls and department stores in the capital Paris, including tourist magnets Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.

Daily new cases are up from a seven-day average of under 2,000 at end-June to nearly 24,000.

Most shoppers on Monday showed their health pass willingly, seeing it as a minor hassle that will allow a resumption of normal life.

"Unfortunately, we don't have many other options at this point, so I don't mind," said Parisian pensioner Frederic Gaide in front of the Printemps department store.

From this week, police will also get tougher when enforcing the use of the health pass in restaurants, trains and indoor public spaces, after being lenient when it was first introduced last week.

While there were few reports of customers trying to circumvent the rule, some restaurant owners complained about time lost as patrons tried to find their pass.

"It takes time to unlock the phone, to find the application, to open it and to find the QR code. The scanning part works very well, but every step before that takes time," said Ms Ewa Fontaine at Paris restaurant Le Mesturet.

REUTERS