Ajaccio (AFP)
The president of the Corsican Assembly, Jean-Guy Talamoni, on Sunday asked for a stricter control of the Covid tests now mandatory to come to Corsica, between December 19 and January 8 inclusive, considering the simple declaration of honor insufficient. required.
On Saturday, the prefect of Corsica and the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced the obligation for people wishing to go to the Isle of Beauty during the end of the year holidays to take a PCR test or antigenic 72 hours before boarding.
However, they had specified that the results of these tests could not be requested from passengers by airlines or shipping companies and that only a sworn statement certifying not to be positive for Covid-19 and not to present symptoms should be presented to boarding.
In the event of a control by the police in Corsica, "people will have to be able to present a documentary evidence from the laboratory or the pharmacy proving that they have passed the test", added the prefect, indicating that any failure would be verbalized .
However, the police will only be able to consult the supporting document and in no case the result of the test itself.
This system is therefore more flexible than that set up in overseas territories (Réunion, Guadeloupe, etc.), where travelers from mainland France must prove a negative test to board.
This "test device + mandatory + without obligation to present it for boarding, unreliable and ephemeral (Editor's note: it will be lifted on January 8), could not suit us", pleaded the president of the Assembly of Corsica, Sunday , in a press release, regretting that this measure was taken "without consultation with elected officials".
"Faced with this announcement, we reiterate our position consisting in establishing the requirement for negative tests (as in the French Overseas Territories) on departure from sea and air links to Corsica, and to do so immediately, without waiting for authorization from the administration, ”added the independence leader.
Faced with the fragility of the island's health system, the request for the establishment of compulsory Covid tests before entering the island has been formulated by the Corsican executive council and the nationalist territorial majority since the end of spring.
After refusing this request, the state acceded to it on Saturday because of the difference in the incidence rate of the virus between the island and the mainland.
During the first wave of Covid-19, in the spring, Corsica was particularly affected.
In total, 138 people have died on this island of 340,000 inhabitants since the start of the epidemic, including 49 since September, according to the ARS.
© 2020 AFP