France hardens travel curbs with Britain over Omicron concerns

Paris — France announced on Thursday that because of surging Covid-19 cases in Britain only designated categories of people would be allowed to travel between the two countries and anyone arriving from Britain would have to self-isolate.

Truck drivers will be exempt from the new rules, the French government said, easing British concerns that the restrictions could cause supply chain disruptions.

France said it is acting now because the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus, which scientists say appears to be infectious, is spreading rapidly in Britain.

“Our goal is to limit as much as possible the spread of Omicron across our territory,” French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said on BFMTV television station. “Tourism and business travel for people who are not French nationals or Europeans, people who are not French residents, will be limited,” he said.

He said there have been 240 confirmed Omicron cases in France, far fewer than in Britain.

Mark Tanzer, CEO of British travel association ABTA, said France’s move is “a hammer blow to the winter travel industry, which is already under extreme pressure following the new Omicron restrictions”.

The new restrictions announced by Paris mean that the only people allowed to travel from France to Britain are British nationals returning home, and people attending a funeral of a close relative, travelling for medical reasons or carrying out essential work, and other exceptional cases.

Under the new rules, people are allowed to travel from Britain to France if they are French citizens or foreigners permanently resident in France, or carrying out essential work or in transit for less than 24 hours.

Britain’s government reacted swiftly by saying it does not believe tighter border measures are effective when the Omicron variant has spread so widely already, but added it is up to countries to decide whether they want to go that route.

“Certainly on our part, given the transmissibility of Omicron and its seeding around the world, we don’t think red lists ... are effective or proportionate at this time,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

Under France’s new rules, before entering the country, travellers will need a negative PCR or antigen test not older than 24 hours. Previously the test could be taken 48 hours before entry. Once travellers arrive in France, they will have to self-isolate for seven days, though isolation will be lifted after 48 hours if a test conducted in France is negative. That restriction until now applied only to non-vaccinated travellers from Britain.

According to a document published by the French government, the new rules take effect after midnight on Friday.

A French transport ministry representative said truck drivers are among the groups still allowed to travel, and the new testing and self-isolation rules do not apply to them.

On Thursday morning a Reuters photographer spotted several miles of trucks queuing up on the main road into the British port of Dover, the busiest departure point for maritime journeys to France. It was not clear what the cause was.

Port of Dover authorities said France’s new travel curbs, just before Christmas, will further dampen already much reduced tourist numbers.

The latest figures released on Wednesday showed new Covid-19 infections in the UK reached the highest daily level since the early 2020 start of the pandemic, with more than 78,000 reported. France on Wednesday reported 65,713 new coronavirus infections over 24 hours, bringing total cases since the start of the epidemic to 8.4-million. Total deaths in France since the start of the epidemic reached 120,983.

Reuters