France to allow some travellers from UK if they take Covid tests - reports

France's ban on travel from Britain, due to the detection of a seemingly more contagious strain of the virus causing Covid-19 in southern England, left travellers stranded in airports and among lorries backed up near the port at Dover, as seen here, 22 December 2020. AP - Kirsty Wigglesworth

The entries would apply to French citizens and British permanent residents of France, including hauliers. Others, including British non-residents of France, would not be allowed to enter.

The measure was to be announced mid-afternoon, according to government sources cited by Franceinfo news website. It was not clear how long the measures would remain in place.

INFO FRANCEINFO. Variante du Covid-19 au Royaume-Uni : la France va instaurer l'obligation d'un test PCR pour ses ressortissants qui veulent revenirhttps://t.co/xYwPvSKPCm pic.twitter.com/D0v1tL3w8w

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) December 22, 2020

It was also not clear whether travellers would be required to take a PCR test, which can take up to 24 hours to analyse, or a more rapid antigen test, which returns more false negatives.

The measure would start to ease a rapid halt to travel that has caused traffic chaos and disrupted supply lines, making for backed-up freight traffic in the UK and nearly deserted ports in France.

Non-essential travel to UK

The European Union (EU) meanwhile recommended that its 27 members allow essential travel including freight to and from Britain, but to avoid non-essential travel until further notice.

Our Recommendation to ensure EU coordinated approach to 🇬🇧 travel restrictions:

➡️ Non-essential travel discouraged, but transit should be facilitated.
➡️ Flight and train bans should stop: need to avoid supply chain disruptions.

More here: https://t.co/PKuvnd9kQQ pic.twitter.com/I7cPslhlWc

— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) December 22, 2020

“Given the current uncertainties and in light of the precautionary principle, Member States should take cordinated action to discourage non-essential travel between the UK and the EU,” European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said after talks on coordinating responses among EU countries.

“At the same time, blanket travel bans should not prefent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes,” he added.

France and many other countries in and beyond Europe imposed bans on traffic from Britain on Sunday, after UK medical teams determined a potentially extra-contagious strain of the coronavirus causing Covid-19 had spread widely in the south of the country.