The Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes Department has ordered that masks must be worn in public places. He also forbade the playing of live music in bars and restaurants and the consumption of alcohol in public.

His move came after another sharp rise in infection rates in the Department, to 407 per 100,000 population on Saturday, July 24.
Meanwhile, as both houses of the French parliament met in a joint session to hammer out amendments to the legal framework for the Health Pass, due to come into effect on Sunday, August 1, President Macron again urged French citizens to get vaccinated.

The resulting legislation is expected to be a watering-down of the original health pass proposals, especially in light of widespread street protests at the weekend.

Arriving in French Polynesia on an official visit he said: “”I want to send out a very strong message to call on everyone to be vaccinated, because we see it in all latitudes: when we are vaccinated, we are protected and we hardly spread (the virus) any more, in any case much less.”

Referring to the anti-pass demonstrations in many French cities on Saturday, including Nice where 6,000 marched, Macron said that there is no such thing as freedom where I owe nothing to anyone. Freedom rests on a sense of reciprocal duty, he added.

Meanwhile, an Ifop poll for the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche recorded 35 percent in support of the anti-pass movement. Just under one-half, 49 percent, of correspondents said they supported the pass.

FILE PHOTO: A health worker in Nice prepares to carry out a nasal swab Reuters