Say Bonjour To Holidays In France: No More Quarantine As France Goes Amber
Nice to see you again. Nice. Geddit? As in the French city. Or the biscuit. Tough crowd… But if you’re playing pandemic holiday roulette this summer then an August or September jaunt across the channel just became viable again.
Under the government’s ‘traffic light’ system, France was, a couple weeks back, bumped from Amber (no quarantine required if you’re vaccinated) to Amber Plus, which doesn’t have a traffic light equivalent but sort of between amber and red, so terracotta? And came with quarantine requirements for vaccinated returnees.
But now France, where covid numbers and hospitalisations continue to rapidly rise, has been downgraded in the face of French diplomatic pressure and travel industry lobbying. Which is great news for travellers keen to return to our closest continental neighbour.
The numbers there suggest that Beta has donned a stripey jumper, beret and a string of onions…
The scientific concern around opening up to France has been the Beta Variant. The raw numbers there suggest that Beta has donned a stripey jumper, beret and a string of onions and is stalking the nation like a demented Tin Tin villain. The worry is that if Beta and Delta (the dominant variant here in the UK) mix they might have rather devastating offspring.
However, howls of protest from France pointed out that the Beta Variant is actually loose in France’s colonies, thousands of miles from mainland France, but including in their official figures nevertheless.
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Whether or not the Brits misread the data, or if the science changed or the PM just fancied a holiday in Provence, France makes its way to Amber from Sunday.
However, travelling the other direction from Amber to Red, are Mexico and Georgia along with the French islands of Mayotte and La Reunion. This will leave thousands of British travellers stranded in Mexico and forced to pay for quarantine hotels (an eye-watering £2,285).
Other traffic light moves include red-list India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, which all move from Red to Amber. So, finally, all the influencers who fled to Dubai for spring can return to the UK.
Meanwhile pandemic poster-child Germany moves to Green along with Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway.
Meanwhile pandemic poster-child Germany moves to Green
But obviously nobody goes on holiday to Germany, so let’s all whip out our best ‘ou est la piscine a Larochelle?’ pack our valises and board l’P&O to sunny Dieppe…
