France on Thursday announced it was unilaterally easing some Covid restrictions on international travel to and from Britain and six other countries outside the European Union.
However, some of the countries in question complained they had not been informed of the decision with the UK tourism board warning that the notion the French could pop over the channel starting this weekend “seems rather premature”.
France is struggling to stem a third wave and ramp up vaccinations. While infections are relatively stable nationwide, intensive care occupancy is rising and three regions — the northern Hauts-de-France, Paris and Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur — are in a “tense and worrying” situation, warned health minister Olivier Véran on Thursday.
Most parts of France, including Paris, have avoided a lockdown and are instead living under a 6pm curfew.
However, with a new Covid patient entering intensive care “every 12 minutes”, the French capital may have to transfer “dozens or even hundreds” of Covid patients if ICU occupancy continues to rise at the current rate, Mr Véran warned. If that was insufficient, the government would take "the necessary measures" to rein it in.
Coronavirus France Spotlight Chart — Cases default
Despite this, starting this weekend, travellers to or from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Israel, Japan, Singapore and the UK will no longer need a “compelling reason” to travel, said the foreign ministry in a statement.
French tourism minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said the decision to relax the rules was due to the improving health situation in those countries.
"The list includes Britain, because the UK variant now also circulates widely in France," he said on his Twitter feed. The so-called British variant now accounts for 65 per cent of new Covid cases in the country.
While the “compelling reason” would be dropped, other restrictions, such as a requirement for a negative Covid test less than 72 hours before travel, would remain in place, the ministry said, adding a decree was due to be published on Friday.
French media said the relaxed rules appeared paradoxical given that the government has asked people to “limit as much as possible international travel”.
Even if they were to travel some of these countries, such as Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, are not currently accepting tourists on their soil. South Korea has placed draconian limits on French travellers. Denouncing a “unilateral decision made without consultation”, Singapore’s tourist board warned the measure “may allow French to leave their country but not enter Singapore”.
However, the French foreign ministry said that the measure was “in no way an invitation for tourism to start up again” but simply a move to allow French expatriates to return home more easily as many have been stranded since the start of the year, when the rules were tightened.
That “put a huge strain on French expatriate communities and binational couples,” the foreign ministry told Le Figaro. “By removing ‘compelling reasons’, a French family residing in Singapore can, for example, return to France without justification.”
Currently, travel from the UK to France is limited to French nationals or British and/or third country nationals who are either habitually resident in France, the European Union or the European Area, and who must travel for “certain essential reasons”.
They must sign a sworn statement certifying that they do not have any Covid symptoms and that they are not aware of having been in contact with an infected person in the 14 days prior to their journey.
As for French travelling to the UK, they must quarantine for 10 days, take a coronavirus test on day 2 and day 8 of quarantining, and follow the national lockdown rules.
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