FRANCE ACCUSES UK OF IMPOSING ‘DISCRIMINATORY’ AND ‘EXCESSIVE’ QUARANTINE RULES

Thu 29 July 2021:

On Thursday, France expressed its displeasure at being left off the list of nations whose people will not be subjected to quarantine upon arrival in England.

Citizens from the ‘amber’ list of the UK’s traffic light list who are completely vaccinated by jabs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will no longer need to self-isolate before traveling to England starting next week. The only exception to this rule is France.

“It is excessive and makes no sense in terms of health policy,” he told the LCI TV channel, adding that “it has no foundation in science”.

France was singled out due to British government’s concern over the “persistent presence” of the Beta variant, which is believed to be more resistant to vaccines.

But Beaune said the Delta strain accounted for fewer than five percent of Covid cases in France, and mostly occurred in overseas territories from where relatively few people travelled to the UK.

Beaune also said he regretted that travellers from the EU could still not enter the United States, even though American tourists can easily come to EU countries so long as they are vaccinated or have a negative Covid test.

“We should have kept reciprocity as a trump card up our sleeves at the European level,” he said. “Perhaps Europe overall should have been tougher in the negotiations.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News’ Kay Burley on Wednesday that the UK is “increasingly confident” that more countries will soon be added to the amber and green travel lists.

France on Wednesday reported just under 28,000 new Covid cases for the previous 24 hours and 40 new deaths from the virus.

A total of 111,768 people have died from Covid in France, according to health authorities.

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