France reopens to unvaccinated travellers

Unjabbed visitors will have to take a Covid test before travel

France breaks are back on for unjabbed travellers (Getty Images)

From today, France will reopen to unvaccinated travellers after a months-long ban, the country’s consul général in London has confirmed.

“On 03/31 the United Kingdom will be placed on the green list,” wrote Guillaume Bazard.

“Abolition of compelling reasons for non-vaccinated travellers, who will have to present a negative test (72-hour PCR or 48-hour TAG) - entry into force upon publication in the Official Journal.”

It comes just in time for Easter breaks and simplifies things for families with children over 12 especially, who had faced confusing rules about entry for 12-17s.

Prior to today, vaccinated travellers were able to visit France with a Covid travel pass alone, while unvaccinated people could not enter the country unless they had an essential or “compelling reason” for travel approved by the authorities.

Unvaccinated people arriving from an orange list country, such as the UK, also had to isolate for seven days on arrival. Now the UK has been moved to the green list, they’ll no longer have to quarantine.

In addition, vaccinated travellers will no longer have to submit a “declaration sur l’honneur” (sworn declaration form) confirming a lack of Covid symptoms. They can enter with proof of vaccination alone.

France imposed its “compelling reason” rule on unvaccinated people in July 2021.

Now, travellers who have had one or no jabs will only need to provide a PCR test result from within the past 72 hours, or an antigen test result from within the past 48.

For those with two jabs or more, your second vaccine dose must have been administered at least 7 days prior to travel for Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or 28 days after a second dose of Johnson & Johnson.

Your second jab also “expires” after 270 days (nine months) - after that, you’ll need to have had a booster jab in order to be deemed fully vaccinated.

Children under 12 continue to be exempt from the testing and proof of vaccination requirement.

France has stayed strict throughout the Delta and Omicron variants of Covid-19, at one point banning British visitors outright.

The development comes as a dozen European countries make the decision to drop all Covid entry requirements and most domestic rules, making for frictionless Easter holidays.