France: Arrivals from some European countries to require 24-hour negative COVID-19 test

People arriving from some European countries will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test report, France announced on Saturday. A new law goes into effect at midnight on Sunday for unvaccinated newcomers from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, and the Netherlands. However, people who have been properly administered the vaccines recognised by the European Medicines Agency, such as Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, or Johnson & Johnson, will not be required to show a test, according to Castex.

Traveling to countries on the red list is still not recommended, according to the Prime Minister, and due to the rapid spread of the Delta strain, unvaccinated passengers from the UK, as well as the five other EU nations, will need a negative test report (PCR or antigenic) which is less than 24 hours old. Castex's declaration comes after the UK government said on Friday that, unlike other nations, it would not waive the required quarantine for vaccinated travellers from France on Saturday.

Additions to the red list

Tunisia, Mozambique, Cuba, and Indonesia have all been put on France's "red list" of countries.

Travel from nations on the red list are permitted only under extreme circumstances, and even then, vaccinated travellers must self-isolate for seven days.

The new measures are being implemented as numerous European countries battle rising caseloads, which are being attributed in part to the highly transmissible Delta form that has spread throughout the continent.

In the last few weeks, the number of new illnesses in France has risen, reaching a mark of about 11,000 on Friday, despite the government's efforts to vaccinate the public.

President Emmanuel Macron said this week that vaccine health cards would be necessary for admission to most public locations, and that all healthcare personnel must be fully immunised, prompting a rush to schedule vaccination appointments.

So far, 35.5 million people have received at least one vaccine dose, accounting for a little over half of France's population.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) predicted a dramatic rise in Coronavirus cases this week, with roughly five times as many new infections, expected by August 1.