Travelers boarding in China bound for France will have to present a negative Covid-19 screening test at the start of their flight, the French government announced on Friday evening. Faced with the explosion of cases of coronavirus infections in China, France joins Italy and Spain among the European countries imposing restrictions, while the EU has failed to speak with one voice on this topic.
Direct flight or stopover
All travelers from China to France – by a direct flight or with a stopover – will have to bring proof of a negative test (PCR or antigen) of less than 48 hours on departure, a government source said during a press conference.
In addition, PCR tests will be carried out on arrival on a random basis, with positive samples subject to systematic sequencing in order to detect any new variants of the virus. Travelers “will have pledged” on departure “to self-isolate” if they test positive on arrival, the government source said. Finally, wearing a mask will be compulsory on board flights departing from China to France.
Measures effective from January 1
The random PCR test on arrival and the obligation to wear a mask will be effective from Sunday 1 January. As for the implementation of the mandatory negative test on departure, it will be subject to a “small delay” of a few days, for “questions of passenger organization”, argued the government.
Three years after the appearance of the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan (center), China put an end to its draconian policy known as “zero Covid” on December 7. Since the lifting of restrictions, Chinese hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of patients, most of them elderly, and vulnerable because they have been little or not vaccinated.
Despite the epidemic rebound, the authorities will end on January 8 the mandatory quarantines on arrival in China, and authorize the Chinese to travel abroad, after three years of frustration. “Flows from China are limited at this stage: we are talking about 3,000 people arriving in France per week, all at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport” near Paris, noted a government source. But “they could increase in the coming days”, she observed.
China in a “very atypical” situation
According to another government source, France has “no element to speak of the existence of a new variant” in China. But the country, weakly immunized, is in a “very atypical situation” which leads the authorities to consider that it could be “a factor in the emergence of new variants of the virus”. As a precaution, a growing number of countries, including the United States, European and Asian nations and Israel, have announced that they will require negative tests from passengers arriving from China.
A European health agency, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), however, considered that the implementation of screening in the EU would be “unjustified”, given the level of immunity in Europe and the presence of the same Covid variants as in China.
France recommends that people wishing to travel to China postpone their trip
Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, representatives of European health ministers did not define a common position. “Discussions are continuing with our European partners in order to coordinate measures to prevent and monitor the epidemic,” the government wrote in a press release. A decree by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on the French restrictive measures will be published over the weekend “and notified to the European Commission and to the Member States of the EU”, the same source indicates.
France also recommended at the beginning of the week to travelers who plan to go to China, especially to fragile or immunocompromised people, to postpone their trip. She advises those who could not postpone it to have a complete and up-to-date vaccination schedule and to respect the barrier gestures.