Despite having marginally fewer COVID cases than the UK, France has announced new restrictions on UK tourists, barring them from entering the nation, according to I News.
French government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, said even more drastic measures were needed to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant, which was first identified in southern Africa. The measures will come into effect on Saturday.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said there would be a “requirement to have an essential reason to travel to, or come from, the UK, both for the unvaccinated and vaccinated. People cannot travel for touristic or professional reasons.”
French nationals and their spouses, as well as British expats who live in France, are exempted from the new restrictions.
According to new rules, people who are allowed to enter will have to self-isolate with police supervision for a week and will have to take a test less than 24 hours before arrival. If a traveler tests negative while in isolation, restrictions can be lifted.
Before this announcement, the UK tourists only needed to provide proof of vaccination and a negative test taken 48 hours beforehand.
France reported more than 740 cases per million people, compared with 841 cases per million people in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Belgium reported 1,002 new cases per million, having case rates remarkably higher than the rest of Europe.
Since the start of December, Omicron cases in France made up 5% of sequenced cases, while in the UK, cases of the new variant made up 32%.
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport of the UK, said, “With community transmission here as well as similar rates around the world, it’s right that we remove the 11 countries from our red list and these changes are the next sensible steps as we continue to tackle this variant.”
According to I News, France has not imposed similar restrictions on any other European country, despite Belgium having a higher caseload than the UK. The number of cases in the UK broke a record for the entire pandemic, registering 78,610 new cases as of yesterday.
