Covid-19: no new restrictions this week, border controls in the EU on the table

The executive wants to give "the curfew a chance", government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced on Wednesday at the end of the cabinet meeting.

Thus, "there will be no change in national restrictions this week," he assured.

The spokesperson took the opportunity to clarify that "France is in favor of health controls being able to take place at intra-European borders", in order to face the danger of the Covid-19 variant.

Health checks at the borders "as soon as possible"

"There are questions being asked about borders within the European Union and this will be the subject of the discussions which will take place tomorrow within the framework of the European Council", Gabriel Attal recalled.

"France is in favor of health controls being able to take place as soon as possible and that European coordination on this point is moving forward", he added.

Stressing that "since the start of this epidemic, we have taken measures to ensure controls at our borders", he relates that "the external borders of the European Union with France have been closed since March 2020".

"Those and those who can join our country from countries outside the European Union are French nationals for almost all of them, and they must perform a negative PCR test before embarking to France, and s 'commit to observing isolation for seven days,' he also insisted.

Eight hours of negotiations in Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Tuesday, two days before an EU council on variants, that a reestablishment of controls between EU countries was not excluded if the situation worsened .

Berlin is particularly worried about the importation of variants of the much more contagious virus, which have appeared in Great Britain and South Africa.

"If countries were to take completely different paths, which I don't see at the moment but which can also be the case, then we have to be prepared to the extreme and say then that we must also reintroduce border controls" , the Chancellor said at a press conference, after eight hours of negotiations with the leaders of regional states which resulted in an extension and tightening of anti-Covid restrictions.