France imposes mandatory quarantine for tourists from Argentina, Brazil and Chile

With more than 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, France is adding more severe restrictions on entering the country: will force travelers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and South Africa stay isolated for ten days, and toughen the fines to enforce the measure. A restriction that will apply from next Saturday.

The French authorities had already announced last Wednesday the suspension of direct air links with Brazil as if to stop the Covid-19 variants that have emerged there. A measure which expired on Monday and which has decided to extend, in principle, until next Friday.

“A system will be put in place to check, before boarding and upon arrival, that there is a suitable place for quarantine, health requirements and controls. They will be carried out by police and gendarmes. This measure will be accompanied by a tightening of fines in the event that isolation is not respected, ”said sources from the office of French Prime Minister Jean Castex.

In addition, we learned that since Saturday 24 Only French citizens and their partners and children or residents can travel from Brazil.

“There will be Brazilians who will come from Italy, Spain, Portugal. Will they control the borders with Portugal? There is already 20% of the Brazilian variant in this country, ”explained professor and doctor Christine Rouziou, opening the debate on the arrival of the Covid-19 mutation.

Several French media have pointed out that government restrictions came late and that the most dangerous strains are already in France.

The same rigor used in Brazil will be applied from next Saturday to travelers from Argentina, Chile, South Africa and French Guiana., where a significant presence of the so-called Brazilian variant was observed. However, the French executive has decided not to suspend air links with these places for the moment.

The French government warned in its statement that other countries could soon join this list.

The conditions for entering France

To enter France, you will have to present yourself before boarding a negative PCR study of the 36 hours before the flight, instead of the 72 hours demanded in most of the rest of the world, with an antigen test of less than 24 hours to do on arrival in France.

Since the beginning of the year, France had tightened travel conditions with countries outside the European Union, only authorizing residents or for reasons of force majeure and on condition of presenting a negative PCR and committing to forty a week.

Now he has redoubled the bet: hopen a pre-boarding screening system to verify that the traveler has a place suitable for ten-day isolation, which can be controlled by the national police or the gendarmerie, which will impose fines in the event of non-compliance with the regulations.

Measures which, according to France, come at a time when the epidemic situation in the territory is “stabilizing”.

With information from AFP

AFG