France will start allowing flights from southern Africa from Saturday.
Paris:
France said on Wednesday that it would allow flights from ten South African countries from Saturday, but with “drastic” restrictions allowing only French and EU nationals to be able to disembark with their families. diplomacy and flight crew.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said these travelers must take a Covid test upon arrival, with a negative result still required to be quarantined for seven days, while a positive test will require a 10-day quarantine.
France is one of a number of countries worldwide that have suspended flights from southern Africa in recent days after the more contagious strain of the Omicron virus was reported by South Africa.
But the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that a “boss” travel ban risks doing more harm than good, by potentially preventing countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.
Attal said French authorities have detected 13 suspected cases of Omicron so far that are being analyzed for confirmation.
“Don’t be fooled or naive, there will most likely be cases on our territory in the coming hours or days,” he said.
Attal also announced that all travelers arriving from outside the European Union will have to present a negative Covid test less than 48 hours, in order to prevent the spread of the more contagious variant of Omicron.
In addition, unvaccinated travelers from EU countries will have to have a negative test result in less than 24 hours.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
