Daily Times

France said Thursday it would ban non-essential travel to and from Britain in a bid to curb the lightning spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, which is forecast to quickly become the dominant risk for strained hospital systems worldwide.

Countries around the world began urging against foreign travel while ramping up domestic restrictions to battle Omicron, which scientists believe spreads faster than any other variant even if uncertainty remains over how dangerous it is.

Britain has seen case levels explode in recent weeks to record levels amid fears the variant could overwhelm the health system during Christmas dinners and parties.

Starting at midnight Saturday (2300 GMT Friday), the French government said, travellers will need “an essential reason to travel to, or come from, the UK, both for the unvaccinated and vaccinated… People cannot travel for touristic or professional reasons.”

It added that French citizens and EU nationals could still return to France from the UK, but they will now need a negative Covid test less than 24 hours old, and a blanket quarantine will be enforced upon return to France. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal told BFM television the new restrictions would be “even more drastic” than the existing regime.

“People (coming back) will have to register on an app and will have to self-isolate in a place of their choosing for seven days — controlled by the security forces — but this can be shortened to 48 hours if a negative test is carried out in France,” Attal said.

The policy aims at “tightening the net” to slow the arrival of Omicron cases as France and its EU neighbours race to get booster shots into people’s arms ahead of the holiday season, he said. Britain on Wednesday recorded a record 78,610 laboratory-confirmed Covid cases, with scientists predicting even higher rates as Omicron is believed to spread much faster than the currently dominant Delta variant.

“It’s down to individual countries to decide their approach,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in response to the French restrictions. “We’ve maintained that travel abroad will be different this year and that countries may impose border measures at short notice,” he added. But at the Eurostar terminal at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, not everyone was convinced on the need for the travel ban.