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TOURISM

France considering extra restrictions on UK travellers over ‘Indian variant’ fears

France's foreign minister has confirmed that the government is considering imposing extra restrictions on travel because of fears of the 'Indian variant' which has seen a surge of cases in the UK.

Published: 25 May 2021 15:23 CEST
France considering extra restrictions on UK travellers over 'Indian variant' fears
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed that extra restrictions are being discussed. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP

Since mid-April, travel into France from India has been strictly limited due to concerns about the health situation and the emergence of another new variant of the virus.

However French officials are now becoming increasingly worried about the situation in the UK, which has seen several thousand cases of the ‘Indian variant’, particularly in hotspots in the north of the country. Travel into France from the UK currently requires a negative Covid test and a 7-day quarantine, but is allowed for any reason.

READ ALSO France’s quarantine rules for arrivals from high risk countries

Germany has put the UK on its risk index for this reason, which bans most travel from the UK apart from German citizens and people who are permanent residents in Germany.

Confirming that it is a concern, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian seemed to rule out a complete ban.

He told French radio station RTL: “The arrival of the Indian variant poses a problem and we are vigilant on this point, in co-operation with the British authorities.”

However he added that the UK would not be put on the red list in France’s proposed traffic light system, a designation which bans virtually all travel.

READ ALSO Red, amber and green – France’s plans for a traffic light travel system 

He said: “If we do have to do it, it won’t be the red list. It will be an intermediate measure, but we are not ruling out make the health measures a little stricter.”

The French government on Wednesday has its regular meeting of the Defence Council, which considers the latest health situation and whether any extra restrictions are needed to keep the virus under control.

Around 80 percent of Covid cases in France are now the ‘UK variant’ of the virus, a new strain of which has been discovered in Bordeaux.

Although case numbers in France remain higher than many of the country’s neighbours, there has been a significant and sustained fall in daily case numbers, hospital occupancy and deaths in recent weeks, allowing the country to move to phase 2 of its reopening plan which included allowing café and bar terraces to reopen. 

The above graph by French journalist Nicolas Berrod shows the dramatic fall in the incidence rate (cases per 100,000 of the population) with the red line showing estimated cases around public holidays, when testing rates tend to fall.

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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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