France's President Emmanuel Macron has said 40 million first COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered.

He announced the news during a visit to the overseas territory of French Polynesia.

Some 33 million people are fully vaccinated in France.

The government has launched a vaccination drive this month urging the public who have not yet signed up to get the COVID-19 shot to do so.

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The president proposed obligatory vaccinations for healthcare workers and that measure was passed by parliament on Sunday.

Also approved by lawmakers was the health-pass proposal.

That measure forces people who want to go to a bar, restaurant, cinema, sports center and many other public places to prove they have either been vaccinated or have recently tested negative for COVID-19 before they can go inside.

The text of the bill was heavily amended from the original version of the proposed legislation and it must now receive the green light from France's Constitutional Council.

There were further protests against the new rules at the weekend with more than 160,000 people demonstrating across France.

The protesters argue that forcing doctors and nurses to have a vaccination goes against free choice.

They also say that imposing the health pass is an indirect way of making the entire population get tested or inoculated, even if they do not want to do so.

On Monday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal played down the significance of the size of the protests: "160,000 French people demonstrated on Saturday and more than 5 million people went to receive an injection in the last same week," he said.

"It's important to put things in balance."

Health-pass checks begin in cafes and bars from the start of August – it will not be necessary to show the pass to access essential stores such as supermarkets and pharmacies.

Restaurant owners who do not carry out health-pass checks will not be fined, but will instead face administrative sanctions.

Other sections of the law concern children aged over 16, who will now be able to get vaccinated without their parents' consent.

Furthermore, people who catch COVID-19 and now have to self-isolate at home for 10 days will not be checked by the police but instead by social security workers.