France joins Italy and Spain and will request a negative COVID-19 test from passengers coming from China

MADRID, 31 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

France will require travelers arriving by plane from China to show a negative COVID-19 test carried out within 48 hours of the trip, thus joining other countries such as Italy and Spain, which have already decided to strengthen border control with the asian country.

This has been detailed by the French Government in statements collected by 'Le Monde', implementing three measures aimed at "protecting the French" against the risks of the appearance of new variants of coronavirus.

Specifically, all passengers arriving in the country from China --whether on a direct flight or with a stopover-- must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen test less than 48 hours before departure to be able to embark.

Likewise, the use of a mask will be mandatory during the flight and, as of January 1, random PCR tests will be carried out on passengers in order to carry out epidemiological monitoring and trace possible new variants of the virus, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

In this sense, the French Executive has called on the citizens of France to postpone their flights to China, except for compelling reasons.

The explosion of COVID-19 cases in China, resulting from the withdrawal of most of the restrictions imposed throughout the pandemic, has generated worldwide concern and has led to the imposition in several countries of new controls for travelers from of the Asian giant.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) assessed on Thursday that, for now, recovering this type of measure was "unjustified", since Europe has a broad level of immunization and no new ones have been detected. variants that present additional cause for concern.

The European Commission, for its part, advocated a "coordinated" approach and convened an extraordinary meeting of the Health Security Committee from which no new measures emerged, beyond advocating "active surveillance" on the evolution of the situation in China. Italy, however, has already advocated common restrictions through its Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.