The new legislation expands the scope of the use of health certificates in daily life and introduces mandatory vaccination for medical staff.

The French parliament has approved legislation to make COVID an important part of daily life in the face of a surge in infections across the country and health workers must be vaccinated.

Monday’s move means that people going to restaurants and other public places, or people traveling domestically on trains and planes, will need to show proof of vaccination, test negative or have recently recovered from the coronavirus.

It initially applies to all adults, but it will apply to all people 12 years and older from September 30.

Paper or digital documents will be accepted, and the new legislation says that government decree will outline how to deal with vaccination documents from other countries.

All workers in the health care sector will also be required to start vaccinations before September 15, or they will face the risk of suspension.

On Saturday, more than 160,000 people attended Protests in multiple cities The government’s plan was opposed across the country on Saturday.

Critics say the new legislation violates the freedom of those who do not want to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

But the administration of President Emmanuel Macron believes that as the fourth wave of COVID-19 infection sweeps France and avoids a new lockdown, rules need to be established to protect vulnerable groups and hospitals.

Last week, Macron order A health pass is required to visit movie theaters, nightclubs, museums and other cultural venues.

The move was made as his government tried to address the rising number of COVID cases, which were driven by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant originally found in India.

These rules are implemented by decree, but legislators need to vote to expand them to cover other environments.

They worked all night to reach a compromise version approved by the Senate on Sunday night and approved by the National Assembly after midnight.

Depending on the virus, these rules can now be applied until November 15.

Vaccination landmarks

Also on Monday, Macron announced that the number of people in France who had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine had exceeded the 40 million mark.

Macron tweeted during his official visit to French Polynesia that 4 million people have been vaccinated in the past two weeks, and now about 60% of the population have received some or all of the vaccine.

Macron earlier lashed out at those who incited anti-vaccine sentiment and protests in France.

“If you say to me’I don’t want to be vaccinated’ but tomorrow you will infect your father, your mother or myself, what is the value of your freedom?” He said during a visit to a hospital in French Polynesia.

Although he said that protesters “can express their opinions freely in a calm and respectful manner,” he warned that the demonstrations will not end the pandemic.

He also criticized “people engaged in irrational, sometimes cynical, manipulative mobilization” against vaccination.

Before Macron’s remarks, France recorded nearly 23,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, twice the number of the previous week.

Last week, the authorities warned that this rise means that France has officially entered the fourth wave of infections.

The number of deaths caused by the pandemic in the country currently exceeds 111,000.

However, the number of intensive care cases has fallen sharply from the peak in April, and the government attributed this improvement to the accelerated promotion of vaccination.