France introduces mandatory on-site Covid-19 tests for other people from 16 high-risk countries, adding the United States.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said Friday that it’s time to introduce universal evidence for French citizens and citizens returning from Covid’s hotspots. Free trials at France’s major airports will be done no later than 1 August.
The “red” countries concerned are: Algeria, Bahrain, Brazil, India, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Madagascar, Panama, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Serbia, which is experiencing a spike in infections, is the European country on the red list.
Travellers arriving from these countries will need to have a negative Covid when boarding. When “there is no detection strategy” and “access to emails is difficult,” France “will conduct widespread detection on arrival,” Castex said.
“All passengers arriving from these ‘red’ countries will go through customs procedures first and then health paperwork,” he added.
In Paris Charles de Gaulle, the second largest airport in Europe, plans to conduct around 3,000 tests a day. Similar controls will be implemented at all major French airports with arrivals from those hotspots.
Only French citizens living in those countries, “or citizens of countries with a settled in France,” will be able to enter, Castex told reporters at the airport.
A similar move is being undertaken by Germany. To curb the threat posed particularly by returning German holidaymakers, it’s introducing free Covid-19 testing stations at all major airports. Travelers coming from high-risk countries who do not take a test, must quarantine for 14 days.
According to Libération, Jean Castex also “strongly” pleaded with the French to avoid Catalonia from Spain, of which Barcelona is the capital.
In this “region of Spain bordering France”, “the fitness scenario has deteriorated markedly in recent days,” he reports. The French government is in talks with the Spanish government to make sure that from Spain it is “as limited as possible”.
This occurs amid strong accumulation in new cases reported in France. According to the Department of Public Health, there have been 1,10 cases in 24 hours since Thursday. During the same period, there were thirteen deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 30,192.
France is involved in the threat posed by the French and other citizens of high-threat countries, but also about the threat of those at home.
“The government deplores the relaxation of compliance with fitness precautions and the increased onset of the virus among young people, where its effects are systematically visible,” I reported. “Government data campaigns on this topic will be implemented this summer.”
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I have 3 decades of experience as a journalist, foreign correspondent and writer-photographer. Working for print, virtual and radio media on 4 continents,
I have 3 decades of experience as a journalist, foreign correspondent and travel writer-photographer. Working for print, virtual and radio media on 4 continents, I am also an experienced hotel journalist and writer of travel guides and cultural histories in Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Borneo. Deep on the road between my Parisian and Australian bases, I write for Forbes with a globetrotting attitude and a subjective theme about travel, culture, hotels, art and architecture. My hobby is to capture the unique people, situations and occasions I encounter along the way, whether in words and images. I have a bachelor’s degree in professional writing from the University of Canberra, a master’s degree in European journalism from Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg and a member of the Society of Travel Writers of the United States. Love for my wild local island of Tasmania fuels my commitment to sustainable travel and conservation.