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COVID-19

Permission forms not needed for trips within 10km of home in lockdown areas, French government announces

After widespread criticism of 'confusing' permission forms for the 16 areas of France placed back on lockdown, the French government announced on Saturday afternoon that the 'attestation' would no longer be needed for trips out during the day, as long as you stay within 10km of home.

Published: 20 March 2021 14:27 CET
Permission forms not needed for trips within 10km of home in lockdown areas, French government announces
The attestation will not be needed for all trips out. Photo: Pascal Guyot/AFP

From Saturday, residents of 16 French départements were back under lockdown as case numbers rose, and Prime Minister Jean Castex had previously announced that residents of these départements would have to print or download the attestation permission form to go outside – as was the case during the first and second national lockdown.

A new form was published online on the Interior Ministry’s website on Saturday morning containing 15 reasons why people could leave their house either under lockdown or the nationwide 7pm to 6am curfew.

But the attestation came in for widespread criticism and even the Ministry of Interior spokesperson admitted it was “complex”.

On Saturday afternoon, the PM’s office then announced a new rule;

  • Attestations will be needed throughout the country for any trips out after curfew
  • But people in the 16 locked-down départements would not need one for trips out during the day as long as they stayed within 10 km of home.
  • Instead people should carry an official piece of ID with their address on or, if they do not have address ID, proof of address such as a utility bill.
  • The attestation will still be needed for people in lockdown zones if they are going more than 10km from home or travelling into another region (which is only allowed for essential journeys) 

The press release stated: “For these 16 departments during the day, the obligation to carry an attestation when going out will be abolished in certain situations: from today, for any journey within a 10 kilometre radius of one’s home between 6am and 7pm, it will no longer be compulsory to produce an attestation and therefore to justify the reason for the journey.

“In the event of a check, you will be asked to produce a simple proof of residence (eg an identity document). The attestation and justification of the reason for the journey will continue to be required for journeys of more than 10 kilometres (either within the department or for inter-regional journeys).”

The forms themselves will be simplified with separate forms for trips out after curfew and for daytime trips in lockdown zones.

The new forms will be available on the Interior Ministry website “within a few hours” the government added on Saturday.

READ MORE: ‘Attestations’, shop closures and 7pm curfew – what changes in France this weekend?

The 16 départements where lockdown is applicable are; Aisne, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis,  Val-de-Marne, Val-d’Oise, Alpes-Maritimes, Eure, Seine-Maritime.

You can find the full list of lockdown rules HERE.

Member comments

  2. Not rocket science, is it?

    *Attestations will be needed throughout the country for any trips out after curfew

    *But people in the 16 locked-down départements would not need one for trips out during the day as long as they stayed within 10km of home.

    *Instead people should carry an official piece of ID with their address on or, if they do not have address ID, proof of address such as a utility bill.

    *The attestation will still be needed for people in lockdown zones if they are going more than 10km from home or travelling into another region (which is only allowed for essential journeys)

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HEALTH

France’s Covid-19 app to be ‘put to sleep’

France's Covid-tracker app, used for months for the all-important 'health pass' will be switched off today, health officials have confirmed.

Published: 30 June 2023 13:29 CEST
France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off. 

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate. 

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