The Omicron variant is now everywhere.
France has therefore decided to lift the quarantine of vaccinated travelers from South Africa.
This measure was taken in early December, after a week of outright suspension of flights from this country, the first in the world where the Omicron variant had been identified.
A new color category aimed at classifying the different countries had even been created for the occasion: South Africa was placed on the “scarlet red” list, which implied a mandatory quarantine of seven days for negative people and a 10-day isolation "in a designated hotel" for people positive for Covid-19.
Quarantine maintained for the unvaccinated
According to a decree published on Thursday, South Africa is moving from the “scarlet red” category to the “red” category.
This means that the ten-day quarantine remains mandatory only for travelers whose vaccination schedule is not complete.
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Travelers are still required to present, before leaving South Africa, a negative PCR or antigen test of less than 48 hours for mainland France, less than 24 hours for overseas territories. In addition, to get to Reunion Island or Mayotte from South Africa, the overriding reason remains mandatory.
The South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs has welcomed on Twitter the lifting of these restrictions, which will allow vaccinated South Africans to travel to France without quarantine but also without a compelling reason to justify.
Several countries, including Great Britain, the United States and Germany had already relaxed their restrictions on travelers from southern Africa in recent weeks.
These decisions followed the realization that vaccines provided fairly effective protection against Omicron, an otherwise widely distributed variant in the world.
The decree also specifies that Eswatini and Lesotho are also leaving the scarlet red list to return to the red list, under the same conditions as South Africa.