The fashion industry took the fight against Covid-19 very seriously with different companies actively joining the vaccination campaign. As you may remember from a previous post, the Solomeo-based king of cashmere Brunello Cucinelli has been busy vaccinating his 1,174 employees against COVID-19 and highlighted once again yesterday that he asked no vax employees in his company (less than 1%) to stay at home with a paid leave for six months to protect workers who have taken their shots.
Vaccination is mandatory for health workers in Italy and at the moment the Italian government led by Mario Draghi is debating the possibility of making jabs mandatory in some workplaces (schools included), as suggested also by Italy's business lobby Confindustria.
As the country is worried about the surge in new infections (especially the Delta variant), the government also announced that, from 6th August, Italians will have to show their Green Pass - that should be an extension of the EU's digital Covid certificate (most Italian who completed the two doses of vaccination already received it) - to enter stadiums, museums, theatres, cinemas, exhibition centres, swimming pools and gyms. The Green Pass will also be required to eat indoors at restaurants.
The pass will be available to those who have had at least one vaccine dose or who present proof of a negative test taken within 48 hours before accessing any of the activities under restriction.
The decision follows similar restrictions imposed in France with a compulsory "pass sanitaire" (health pass) to access cultural and leisure venues (cinemas, theatres, museums, theme parks or cultural centres) that came into force in the country on July 21.
The health certificate proves the bearer has either been fully vaccinated or had a recent, negative PCR test that is less than 48 hours old. From the beginning of August, it will be necessary to show the health pass in France to have coffee or eat lunch at a restaurant (even outdoors) or shop at a mall. The permits will also be required for entry to hospitals and to board long-distance trains.
At the moment France's rules are among the most restrictive in Europe: different European countries are using different strategies to tackle the rise in new infections. France actually registered 18,000 cases in the 24 hours prior to 20 July; yesterday Italy registered 5,057 new Coronavirus infections; today 5,143, mostly caused by the Delta variant (many cases may be the consequences of the euphoric celebrations after Italy's vistory at the Euro 2020 football championship).
The announcement of the Green Pass ignited a vaccination drive in Italy and France, but it also brought criticism, especially from right-wing parties and supporters. In Italy, where the state of emergency was extended until the end of the year, far-right parties Brothers of Italy and the League complain about a "health dictatorship" and talk about the freedom of choice of those who do not want the vaccination.
Yet, we all want to go back to our pre-Covid-19 lives and, to do so, we must make sure we protect ourselves and others with vaccines. Sure, we all want our rights to be respected, but we all have civic duties to honour and taking the vaccine is part of our collective duties.
So you can bet that, come September, those fashion houses organising live shows in the main European capitals will request a health passport at the door. Considering that France and Italy have now issued precise rules regarding the health pass, you can expect that guests at fashion weeks in Paris and Milan will be asked to show their passes to enter the show venues.
And, while the health passport can be shown digitally on a smartphone as a QR code, we can now expect fashion houses to start designing health passport covers or maybe send a health passport cover as invitation to the September runway shows. Who knows, maybe by September as health passports become trendy at fashion events, the only untrendy people left out there will be just a bunch of no-vaxxers.
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