France requires negative COVID-19 tests for all non-EU arrivals

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - All travelers – vaccinated or not – from countries outside the European Union will have to present a negative COVID-19 test to enter France, the government announced on Wednesday.

Starting from Saturday, France will require all non-EU travelers to show a test result taken within 48 hours of arrival, while only unvaccinated travelers from the Schengen zone will need to show a proof of test taken 24 hours before, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said at the weekly news conference.

The decision to introduce mandatory negative tests, which can be either an RT-PCR or antigen, was taken to effectively deal with the Omicron variant, he stated.

This will largely impact travelers from non-EU countries including the UK, the US, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia coming to France to spend Christmas and for the end of the year celebrations.

Attal said the main issue of mandatory negative tests still left to deal with was about non-EU travelers coming to the EU. “On this point, we are working on European coordination, a decision will be taken at the end of the week."

France will also restore air links with the southern African countries – where the omicron variant was first identified – from Saturday under “strict supervision,” he announced.

For this, a new category of scarlet red countries will be introduced in the travel restriction including South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and Eswatini from where flights have been suspended since Nov. 26; in addition to Malawi, Zambia, and Mauritius.

Attal pointed out there are currently 13 suspected cases of the omicron variant in France which will be confirmed by the health authorities in the coming days and it was pertinent to guard “maximum vigilance.”