Paris (AFP)
An immediate neighbor of the United Kingdom, France in turn decided on Sunday to suspend for 48 hours all travel from British soil, after the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus which worries Europe.
This suspension was announced at the end of an extraordinary Health Defense Council by videoconference, chaired by Emmanuel Macron, himself in solitary confinement in the residence of La Lanterne after having tested positive for Covid-19.
It will apply from midnight and will concern all trips "including those linked to the transport of goods, by road, air, sea or rail," Matignon said in a press release.
"Only unaccompanied freight will therefore be authorized. The flow of people or transport to the United Kingdom is not affected," said Matignon.
The French decision comes in the wake of similar measures taken by Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg or Ireland, when a variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus has been detected across the Channel.
This genetic variant "does not seem to cause, at this stage of knowledge, increased severity or resistance to the vaccine", specifies Matignon, according to whom "the fact that this strain is more contagious has not been demonstrated at this stage".
The 48-hour deadline should make it possible to "open up coordination time" between EU countries "in order to define a common" doctrine.
It is also about "preparing a secure reopening of flows from the United Kingdom" which will be based "on a mandatory test device at the start".
This concerns in particular the large French community which resides in Great Britain and some of whom had planned to return to France for the holidays.
- "Return solutions" -
In this regard, the Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari specified on LCI that he had asked "all operators" (SNCF, Eurostar, airlines and shipping companies) "to inform their customers" in such a way. that they know that "the tickets are obviously exchangeable and refundable", and "that we can build in the next days the solutions of return with them".
"We will adapt, as we have always done since the beginning of the crisis (...) We will be on the side of the customers and we will reimburse", confirmed on BFMTV the boss of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou .
The British government announced on Saturday an express re-containment of London and south-eastern England in an attempt to stem a surge in contaminations attributed to a new strain of the virus which could be up to 70% more contagious than the previous one.
It is "out of control" in the United Kingdom, said Sunday the British Minister of Health Matt Hancock and epidemiologists do not hide their concern.
A few days before the end of the year holidays, all of Europe mobilized to face the health situation in the United Kingdom, also engaged in the home stretch of Brexit.
France and Germany first sought to coordinate at European level.
Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel thus exchanged Sunday with the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen and the President of the European Council Charles Michel on the response to be given to this new development of the epidemic which has plunged the planet into crisis since March. .
Suffering from fatigue, cough and aches, Mr. Macron isolated himself Thursday evening at the official residence of La Lanterne, in Versailles, his wife Brigitte remaining at the Elysee.
The Head of State "goes through the Covid like millions of French people, with cough, fatigue, his condition is stable" and "he continues to follow important files hour by hour", assured Mr. Attal.
In France, concerns remain high as the end of the year holidays approach.
Sunday evening the number of patients in intensive care was almost stable compared to Saturday, at 2,745, against 2,718 on Saturday.
But the number of people testing positive remains high, with 12,799 new cases.
The day before, the country had recorded 17,565 new positive cases, very far from the target set by the government for mid-December.
"The virus continues to circulate in France but it circulates there much less quickly than elsewhere", however underlined Mr. Attal, insisting that "our neighbors are in the process of making choices in terms of closure (...) than us we did several weeks ago and were very criticized at the time ".
The Council of State, the highest administrative jurisdiction, must consider Monday the closure of cinemas and theaters, extended at least until January 7 to fight against the pandemic but contested by professionals.
© 2020 AFP