(Recasts with news conference)
By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - France will ease work-from-home rules from early February and allow nightclubs to reopen two weeks later, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday, adding that the general COVID-19 situation in the country was starting to improve.
Caps on the number of people allowed into sports and entertainment venues will also be lifted at the start of February, and COVID protocols in schools could be eased after the winter holidays.
However a vaccine pass, which requires a certificate of vaccination to enter public venues like restaurants, cafes, cinemas and long-distance trains, will enter into force as planned, Castex said, saying it would be enforced from Jan. 24.
However, the vaccine pass could be dropped later if the risk to public health from the pandemic eased significantly, he told a news conference.
France reported over 425,000 coronavirus infections on Thursday. The number of COVID patients in intensive care has stabilised, leaving the government some room for manoeuvre.
The vaccine pass, approved by parliament on Sunday, still needs the green light of the Constitutional Court, which will make its views known on the matter on Friday. The pass has re-energised anti-vaccine street protests.
Up until now, a negative COVID test was also accepted to get access to public venues. That will no longer be the case.
Meanwhile, the French government's science advisory body said the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic would remain at a high, but manageable, level of infections until mid-March.
Castex also encouraged parents to vaccinate children aged 5-11, and said children aged 12-17 would now be able to get a vaccine booster. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Dominique Vidalon, Marc Angrand, Richard Lough; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Mark Potter, William Maclean and Mark Heinrich)
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