Metz (AFP)

A test, PCR or antigen, with a sample taken for less than 48 hours will be required without any exception from Tuesday at 00:00 to enter Germany from the Moselle, the prefecture of this department announced on Sunday in a press release.

"Cross-border workers must be able to present paper or electronic proof" in the event of a control in Germany, details the prefecture, inviting those who work in Germany "to contact their German employer so that they can have the test carried out" which they could if necessary carry out in France.

Pupils educated in Germany must, them, "inquire with their establishment", continues the prefecture.

Some 16,000 Moselle border workers are affected by these measures.

The prefecture also announced that "public and private public transport companies will no longer be able to cross the border", bus and tram between the Moselle and the Saar being "interrupted".

The precise modalities of implementation will be specified later, discussions between the German and French authorities continuing "so that daily life is affected as little as possible in this closely interconnected border basin".

It has already been "agreed that checks on these new measures" should not create "waiting at border points".

"The French and German authorities have agreed on the need to avoid any closure of the border and will continue to discuss in the days to come to discuss all possible means of alleviating these restrictions", continues the prefecture.

For entry into France, she specifies, the rules remain unchanged.

"People who live less than 30 km from the border and enter France for less than 24 hours, people who regularly cross the border for their work and truck drivers will always have to present a document justifying their passage but are exempted from l 'PCR test obligation of less than 72 hours,' recalls the prefecture.

© 2021 AFP