PARIS (AP) – France has launched 400 investigations into groups selling fake COVID-19 passes, the interior minister announced Sunday as COVID hospitalizations are on the rise across the country.
The local press has given extensive coverage to the case of a woman who showed a false vaccination certificate and later died in a regional hospital in Paris. The director of the hospital’s intensive care unit stated that they would have given the woman immediate antibody treatment if they had known that she was not vaccinated.
Authorities have identified thousands of fake passes in different parts of France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday in statements to the RTL broadcaster. He stated that some 400 files have been opened, including some against “health professionals.”
He did not report how many people have been arrested or give other details.
The government is tightening the rules around vaccination certificates, required to enter restaurants, theaters and other public places. To obtain the record, the person must show proof of vaccination, negative test of less than 24 hours before or having recovered from COVID-19.
France, after recording a peak in daily cases since the start of the pandemic last week, is accelerating its plans to make booster vaccines accessible to ease pressure on hospitals. Half of the intensive care units are occupied by COVID victims, some regions have postponed non-essential surgeries and on average more than 100 people die each day from the disease.
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