translated from Spanish: France imposes quarantine on travellers from Chile, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa

France will force travelers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and South Africa to remain isolated for ten days, fearing the expansion of coronavirus variants, and tighten conditions to enter the country. The Government announced on Saturday that the suspension of flights to Brazil, which has been in place since 14 April, will last at least until next Friday 23, the time needed to “allow them to be resumed with additional security measures”. As of April 24, only French citizens and their partners and children or residents will be able to travel from Brazil. To enter it will be necessary to present before boarding a negative PCR of 36 hours before the flight, instead of 72 hours, or negative PCR of the previous 72 hours together with an antigen test of less than 24 hours that will be done on arrival in France.Those arriving from Brazil must be isolated for ten days and there will be controls to ensure that isolation is respected. The same measures will apply from 24 April to travellers from Argentina, Chile, South Africa and French Guiana, where a significant presence of the so-called Brazilian variant has been observed, although in this case the Executive has decided not to suspend air connections. The Government noted in its statement that other countries could soon integrate this list. Since January, France had tightened the conditions of travel with countries outside the European Union, permitted only to residents or for reasons of force majeure and on the condition that they present negative PCRs and commit to a week-long quarantine. Now, there will be a verification system before boarding to verify that the traveler has a place adapted for ten-day isolation, which can be controlled by the national police or the gendarmerie, who will impose fines in case the regulations are not respected. Measures that, according to France, intervene at a time when the epidemic situation within the territory “stabilizes”.

Original source in Spanish