France will not ban its citizens from traveling for holidays in Portugal or Spain, despite a message last week that this was not encouraging due to the outbreak of the epidemic in both countries.
French government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said in the press conference held after the cabinet, that more caution is only required, especially in areas where the number of cases has increased.
Atal insisted that the travel restrictions were not expected for Portugal and Spain, and at the same time announced that they had been placed on France’s “red list” – which makes travel virtually impossible – to Tunisia, Cuba, Mozambique and Indonesia. The spokesman ruled out the possibility of “preventing the French from going on vacation to Spain or Portugal” when asked about a possible change in travel conditions, after the Minister of State for European Affairs, Clement Bonn, advised, last Thursday, not to take trips to France. Iberian Peninsula.
He only added that “vigilance is required, wherever you go on vacation, in France or abroad,” although “of course, in some countries or in some regions of those countries where the spread of the epidemic is stronger, for example in Catalonia, where the rate of infection is Among young people up to 1,000, increased monitoring is required.”
Asked whether the possibility of including another country in the European Union on the “red list” is, in principle, the spokesman replied: “The considerations that guide us are always of a health and operational nature”, as well as “some pragmatism”.
Atal noted that the move to Tunisia’s “red list” – where thousands of French are on vacation – means that starting next weekend, those intending to enter France from that country will be required to provide a “good reason”, a negative test (even if an vaccinate him) and complete the isolation period.
This isolation will be voluntary and will last for seven days for those who have already been fully vaccinated and ten days for others and in this case under the control of the security forces, on pain of paying a fine of 1,000 euros in case of non-compliance.
The same rules will apply to travelers from Cuba, Mozambique and Indonesia.
According to the French government spokesman, the “fourth wave has already begun” and the situation in other European countries where the number of new cases has risen “is a state of alert” that justifies the need to speed up the vaccination process, because the coverage rate is “still insufficient.”
Gabriel Attal also referred to some of the announcements made on Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron, which stated that health professionals and all professionals who deal with vulnerable people will have to be vaccinated by September 15 in order to continue working.
And also that the period of use of the health certificate will be extended, which, from July 21, will be required to go to the cinema, theater or performances of more than 50 people, and from the beginning of August to go to a bar or to a restaurant, to travel long distances in public transport or to enter to the shopping center.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused at least 4,044,816 deaths worldwide, among more than 187.2 million cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the latest report from Agence France-Presse.
In Portugal, since the beginning of the epidemic, in March 2020, 17,173 people died and 912,406 cases of infection were recorded, according to the Directorate General of Health.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which was discovered in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in countries such as the United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Brazil and Peru.
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