The measure aims to limit the spread of the coronavirus on French soil. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday on BFMTV that tests to detect the Covid-19 will now be systematic for people arriving in France from "countries where the virus is still circulating".
"We will systematize tests at airports for travelers from countries where the virus is still circulating. We will be able to do 2,000 PCR tests per day." @GabrielAttal #BFMPolitics
- BFM Politics (@BFMPolitique) July 12, 2020"We will announce today that we will systematize airport tests for travelers arriving from so-called red countries, that is to say the country where the virus circulates the most," said the spokesman. of the government in the program BFM Politique, in partnership with Le Parisien.
List of countries published on Saturday
A decree published this Saturday in the Official Journal has also listed the "circulation zones of the infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus", which seem to correspond well to the zones of which the secretary of state speaks.
In France, Mayotte and Guyana are included. Abroad, all countries are affected, except those of the European Union and around twenty others, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Morocco and Canada.
"We can do 2,000 PCR tests per day," also said Gabriel Attal, adding that around forty people will be mobilized for this mission. Travelers who are screened at their place of departure will not be affected upon arrival in France.
"Salivary" tests, announced Véran Friday
Friday, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran had also announced that travelers arriving from countries at risk "would be offered a test within a few days". But he then mentioned tests "saliva, [...] in the process of qualification (and which are) being purchased" by his ministry.
Nothing to do, therefore, with the classic PCR tests which consist in looking for possible traces of the virus at the back of the nose with a swab.
