Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

COVID-19 RULES

Calendar: The key dates to know as France tightens Covid restrictions

France will introduce new health measures in order to slow the arrival of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections due to the Delta variant, with more restrictions targeted at unvaccinated people. Here's what happens and when.

Published: 12 July 2021 21:38 CEST
Updated: 13 July 2021 11:33 CEST
Calendar: The key dates to know as France tightens Covid restrictions
The health pass will be required in bars and restaurants from August. Photo: Bertrand GUAY / AFP.

President Macron gave an address on live TV on Monday July 12th, to announce a series of new restrictions, mainly aimed at encouraging as many people as possible to get vaccinated.

Here is the full calendar for the new measures.

From July 13th

Border controls are strengthened, with strict isolation for unvaccinated travellers coming from high-risk countries.

The government has yet to confirm whether ‘high risk’ refers to countries on the red list or orange list of France’s traffic light travel system, The Local has asked for clarity on this.

READ ALSO How France’s traffic light travel system works 

The French overseas départements of Réunion and Martinique are placed back under a state of health emergency, and a curfew is introduced in those areas.

July 21st

The health passport is extended to leisure and culture venues with more than 50 people such as cinemas, theatres and museums. This previously only applied to venues with more than 1,000 people.

EXPLAINED: How France’s reinforced health passport system will work

To access these sites, you will need to show one of three things:  a vaccination certificate, proof of a negative PCR or antigen test taken in the previous 48 hours, or proof that you have recently recovered from Covid (having tested positive more than two weeks ago and less than six months ago).

Start of August

The health pass is once again expanded. It is now required for entering bars, cafés, restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes and for long-distance travel by coach and train. This measure still need to be debated by parliament and no exact date was given.

August 30th

Health passport becomes compulsory for children aged 12-17 and for employees at health passport venues. A little extra flexibility has been introduced for these groups in order to give them time to arrange vaccinations.

Autumn

Non-medical PCR and antigen Covid tests are no longer free. This covers tests taken for travel purposes or for the health passport, but tests taken for medical reasons such as for people with Covid symptoms or contact cases continue to be free, as long as they are prescribed by a doctor.

So far, no exact date has been provided for the change. At present, the cost of PCR tests are capped at €49.

Start of September

From the autumn, those who were the first to receive the Covid vaccine in France in January and February will be offered a piqûre de rappel (booster shot). They will be able to make an appointment from the start of September.

September 2nd

School return after the summer holidays, with the government planning an extra push to vaccinated 12-17 year-olds who did not get the vaccine over the summer. 

September 15th

The Covid vaccine becomes obligatory for healthcare workers and other employees in hospitals, clinics, retirement homes, and establishments for people with disabilities; and for all professionals and volunteers who work in contact with elderly or vulnerable people, including in their homes.

Those concerned have until September 15th to get the injection; after that date, there will be checks and sanctions for those who have not been vaccinated.

Member comments

  1. Is France accepting vaccination cards (with name, lot number, date, etc.) as proof of vaccination? We are from the United States and we don’t have a digital vaccination certificate in our state. Thank you for any information! Deb Lasher

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

COVID-19 RULES

End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden’s Covid laws really means

With the expiry of Sweden's two temporary Covid-19 laws, the downgrading of the virus's threat classification, and the end of the last travel restrictions, April, officially at least, marks the end of the pandemic. We explain what it means.

Published: 1 April 2022 13:07 CEST
End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden's Covid laws really means

What are the two laws which expire on April 1st? 

Sweden’s parliament voted last week to let the two temporary laws put in place to battle the Covid-19 pandemic expire on April 1st.

The first law is the so-called Covid-19 law, or “the law on special restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 illness”, which was used during the pandemic to temporarily empower the authorities to limit the number of visitors to shops, gyms, and sports facilities. It also gave the government power to limit the number of people who could gather in public places like parks and beaches. 

The second law was the “law on temporary restrictions at serving places”. This gave the authorities, among other things, the power to limit opening times, and force bars and restaurants to only serve seated customers.  

What impact will their expiry have? 

The immediate impact on life in Sweden will be close to zero, as the restrictions imposed on the back of these two laws were lifted months ago. But it does means that if the government does end up wanting to bring back these infection control measures, it will have to pass new versions of the laws before doing so. 

How is the classification of Covid-19 changing? 

The government decided at the start of February that it would stop classifying Covid-19 both as a “critical threat to society” and “a disease that’s dangerous to the public” on April 1st.

These classifications empowered the government under the infectious diseases law that existed in Sweden before the pandemic to impose health checks on inbound passengers, place people in quarantine, and ban people from entering certain areas, among other measures. 

What impact will this change have? 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a disease that’s dangerous to the public”, or an allmänfarlig sjukdom, people who suspect they have caught the virus, are no longer expected to visit a doctor or get tested, and they cannot be ordered to get tested by a court on the recommendation of an infectious diseases doctor. People with the virus can also no longer be required to aid with contact tracing or to go into quarantine. 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a critical threat to society”, or samhällsfarlig, the government can no longer order health checks at border posts, quarantine, or ban people from certain areas. 

The end of Sweden’s last remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions

Sweden’s last remaining travel restriction, the entry ban for non-EU arrivals, expired on March 31st.  This means that from April 1st, Sweden’s travel rules return to how they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 

No one will be required to show a vaccination or test certificate to enter the country, and no one will be barred from entering the country because their home country or departure country is not deemed to have a sufficiently good vaccination program or infection control measures. 

Does that mean the pandemic is over? 

Not as such. Infection rates are actually rising across Europe on the back of yet another version of the omicron variant. 

“There is still a pandemic going on and we all need to make sure that we live with it in a balanced way,” the Public Health Agency’s director-general, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told SVT. 

Her colleague Sara Byfors told TT that this included following the “fundamental recommendation to stay home if you are sick, so you don’t spread Covid-19 or any other diseases”. 

SHOW COMMENTS