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Denmark advises against travel to France due to increase in coronavirus cases

The Danish foreign ministry is now advising against all non-essential travel to France and Croatia, which in recent weeks have seen increasing numbers of Covid-19 infections.

Published: 27 August 2020 17:42 CEST
Denmark advises against travel to France due to increase in coronavirus cases
Photo: Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix

The decision was confirmed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday afternoon.

One of the Danish criteria for designating a country ‘open' for travel is that the number of current coronavirus infections in the last week must be below 20 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Once a country is open, the critical limit for when travel advisories are tightened again is set at 30 cases of infection per 100,000 residents, measured over the past week.

France and Croatia are now both over this limit with figures at around 33 and 34 cases per 100,000 residents respectively, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the EU agency monitoring the data.

The travel advisories are not legally binding and it is therefore not illegal not to follow them, but the Danish foreign ministry advises people who travel to France after August 27th to stay at home for 14 days after returning to Denmark.

Danes and Danish residents currently in France can stay in the country until the end of their holiday, according to the updated travel advice on the Danish foreign ministry website. In such cases, the ministry advises getting a test for Covid-19 on returning to Denmark but does not ask travellers to home quarantine.

The same guidelines apply to Croatia.

Both countries are popular destinations for Danish tourists.

“A lot of holidays to Croatia have been going on, so it means a lot for the travel industry side, because we organise a lot of trips there,” Lars Thykier, CEO of the Danish Travel Agency Association, said to Ritzau.

“France is a little different because travel there takes a varying number of forms. It is more than just holiday travel, so it means a lot that (France) will now be a closed country,” Thykier added.

In addition to the number of new cases, health authorities also base recommendations on the number of tests a country is conducting and the proportion of tests which return positive. A maximum of five percent of those tested may test positive.

Danish authorities are no longer advising against travel to Bulgaria, reversing its ‘closed’ status of the past four weeks.

Once a country has been ‘closed’ for travel, one of the criteria for designating a country ‘open' again is that the number of coronavirus infections must be below 20 per 100,000 inhabitants during the last seven days.

Although Bulgaria has been below that number since last week, the country does not meet Denmark's criteria for testing. However, Danish authorities have applied a safety margin where the number of infections in the country is multiplied by 1.5.

The purpose of this is take into account that there may be more infected people in the country than official figures show.

Bulgaria's number of infected people has fallen further in the past week to around 12 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the ECDC.

That number is significantly low for travel advisories against Bulgaria to be dropped even though it fails to meet testing criteria.

Denmark opened its borders for travel to the majority of EU and Schengen countries, along with the United Kingdom, in July after previously closing its borders at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

READ ALSO: Denmark advises against travel to Spain and postpones part of re-opening

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FRANCE WEATHER

Thunderstorms, floods and traffic: France’s last holiday weekend in May 

The final holiday weekend of May in France is set to be marked by bad weather and difficult driving conditions on busy roads.

Published: 17 May 2024 15:44 CEST
Thunderstorms, floods and traffic: France’s last holiday weekend in May 

Monday, May 20th is a holiday for most of France, marking the Christian festival of Pentecost, which means that many people will enjoy a three-day weekend.

This is the last of four public holidays in France in May 2024, now we need to wait until August for another extra day off work (since the Fête National on July 14th falls on a Sunday this year).

So what can we expect for the long weekend? Well, bad weather and heavy traffic, unfortunately.

The Moselle département, in north-east France, was placed on red weather alert on Friday after hours of heavy rain caused flash flooding.

The red weather alert initially runs until 9pm on Friday, with between 80mm and 100mm of rain expected, while between 70mm and 90mm are predicted in the far north of the neighbouring Bas-Rhin, with up to 70mm expected further south – figures national forecaster Météo-France said approached records for daily rainfall figures in the region.

Orange alerts in the area remain in place on Saturday.

Image: Météo-France

Rain and occasional storms, some bringing hail, are expected to develop across large parts of the country throughout the weekend, with only the Mediterranean areas likely to remain dry on Saturday.

Showers and sunny spells will continue into Sunday and Monday, with occasional thunderstorms in the south-west. Temperatures throughout the weekend should rise to between 15C and 22C.

To make family getaways on the final long weekend of the month even more difficult, roads watchdog Bison Futé predicts ‘difficult’, or ‘very difficult’ travel conditions on key routes across the country. 

Image: Bison Fute

On Friday, traffic is expected to be heavy on routes heading away from major cities towards popular holiday destinations until well into the evening – especially on Paris’s Périphérique and the A86 and A6B, the A7, along the Mediterranean Arc and on the Atlantic seaboard (A11, N165 and A63). 

The A13 is likely to remain closed to traffic between Paris and Vaucresson across the holiday weekend, so drivers from the Paris region wishing to reach Normandy are advised to take the A14, A15 or N12

On Saturday, May 18th, conditions on the roads will be difficult nationwide, particularly on roads serving the Mediterranean arc (A7 and A9) and the Atlantic coast (A63 and N165). In the Île-de-France region, traffic will be heavy from early morning onwards on the A6 and A10. From mid-morning onwards, traffic is expected to intensify significantly. 

Image: Bison Fute

Routes converging on the A10 and A6 could also see traffic problems on Saturday, Bison Futé warned.

No major forecastable traffic problems are expected on Sunday – but, on Monday, May 20th, short breakers will be returning home, leading to heavy traffic across the country, notably on A7 and A9, in the Mediterranean region, and routes serving the west of the country.

Traffic will be heavy on the A10 and A6 in the Île-de-France region from late morning into the evening. The A13, which should be open, could also experience traffic problems from mid-afternoon onwards, and could continue to do so well into the evening.

Across the country banks and public administration offices will close. Some independent shops may close, while larger stores and chains are more likely to be open, but probably with altered opening hours.

Most bars, restaurants and cafés will remain open while public transport will run as normal. 

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