Vaccinated visitors traveling from the United Kingdom to France will no longer need to provide a feasible reason to enter the country or quarantine upon their arrival.
According to France’s Tourism minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, a negative result of a COVID-19 test taken 24 hours before leaving Great Britain will still be required.
Non-vaccinated travelers from the UK will nonetheless still be required to prove their trip is essential and self-isolate for 10 days.
France is easing the coronavirus restrictions that have been introduced on December 18, effectively limiting all non-essential travel between the two countries amid fears about the spread of the Omicron variant.
Permitting the entry of visitors from Great Britain will provide a significant boost to France’s tourism sector during February’s UK school vacation period.
Addressing the ruling, Brittany Ferries Chief Executive Christophe Mathieu called it a “great relief” and said he hoped the previous regulations would represent “the last border closure of the COVID-19 crisis.”
The relaxation of restrictions comes despite France itself having registered a record number of new daily infections on Wednesday, with 338,858 new cases having been confirmed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The French parliament is currently in the process of introducing a COVID-19 pass that would effectively ban unvaccinated individuals from public life. This sparked widespread national protests over the weekend that saw more than 100,000 people come out to oppose the new measures. The bill has been passed by the lower house and must now secure support from the senate before it can formally come into effect.
