New aspect in tensions between France and the United Kingdom. The British government announced on Wednesday that fully vaccinated travelers against COVID-19 arriving in England from the European Union and the United States would now be exempt from quarantine, a measure sought by the tourism sector and expatriates. However, people coming from France are excluded from this announcement.
The measure will come into effect from Monday at 04:00 (03:00 GMT), the minister for transport grants said on Twitter. “We help people living in the US and European countries reconnect with family and friends in the UK,” he wrote in a tweet. He adds that even if they are fully vaccinated, these passengers will have to continue to undergo PCR tests before and for two days after their arrival.
This is a false pleasure for many French people who were waiting for relaxation in travel arrangements. “Different rules will continue to apply for arrivals from France,” the ministry said in a statement. On the UK government website, these rules refer to a 10-day quarantine after arrival in the UK.
Concerns about the beta version, however, are very much in the minority in metropolitan France.
This decision by British leaders is said to be due to their concerns about the South African version of Beta. However, this variant represents less than 5% of new positive cases in France according to sequencing data communicated by Public Health France. It is admittedly a majority in Réunion, but has a much smaller presence in mainland France. It is already part of the reason why the United Kingdom announced last week that its residents would not be exempted from quarantine upon return from France, while this was the case for many European countries such as Italy or Spain.
With 144,084 French people registered in the United Kingdom, it is the third region to welcome the most migrants. from france. So the news would have been a source of joy to many French people, especially when the United States announced that it would not immediately reopen its borders.
The announcement comes at a time when the number of Covid-19 cases is declining in the UK after weeks of alarming growth. A situation that many epidemiologists qualify as “disturbing”.