Thousands of people marched on Saturday in several cities in France in protest of the so-called coronavirus pass, now required to enter restaurants and bars, cultural and sports facilities, as well as to tackle long-distance travel.
For the sixth consecutive Saturday, opponents criticized what they see as a restriction on their freedom. Many say that with the measure, the government was implicitly making vaccines mandatory.
In Paris, there were four demonstrations organized by different groups and in other parts of the country more than 200 protests took place. Last week, more than 200,000 people took part in the protests.
The past shows that the carrier is fully vaccinated, has had a recent negative virus test, or has recently recovered from COVID-19. The law that authorized the pass also made vaccines mandatory for all health workers in France by September 15th.
Despite the protests, polls show that most French people support the health pass. Millions of people have already received the first dose of a vaccine since President Emmanuel Macron announced the measure on July 12.
Since last month, France is registering a high number of infections: about 22,000 daily, a figure that has remained stable over the past week.
More than 47 million people in France -70.2% of the population- have received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 40,200,000 -60.5% – are fully vaccinated.