France to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for health workers: Macron

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday (Jul 12) that in order to fight a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic, vaccination against the disease will be made mandatory for all health staff and other workers who come into contact with vulnerable patients.

He added that from Sep 15 there would be controls and sanctions.

"If we don't act now, case numbers and hospital numbers will rise," he said in a televised speech.

France has an entrenched anti-vaccination movement but authorities had banked on convincing enough people, including medical staff, to voluntarily get inoculated and curb the spread of the virus.

However, a slowdown in vaccination rates as the summer holidays approach and a sharp upturn in new infections due to the now-dominant Delta variant have forced the government to rethink.

France has gone from an average of more than 400,000 first injections per day at the end of May to about 165,000 per day now.

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