Facing the Omicron tidal wave, France has just placed the United States on its red list of countries (on a scale from “green” to “scarlet” through “orange” and “red”). The Decree of 31 December was published this Saturday in the Official Journal.

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Simply put, this would not change anything for vaccinated travelers from the United States: they would have to be provided with a negative test (PCR or antigen) no less than 48 hours before boarding for France. But unvaccinated travelers will be subject to a controlled ten-day quarantine by authorities from January 2, not a test followed by seven days of isolation (without verification) that was in effect until then. The country was previously classified “orange” by the Quai d’Orsay. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania suffer the same fate.

The United States has recorded more than 5.75 million positive Covid-19 cases in the last 28 days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It is the country most affected by the pandemic, ahead of the United Kingdom and France, with 2.57 and 2.15 million infections recorded respectively in the past four weeks.