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Mandatory quarantine: the Stations of the Cross for travelers

2021-04-24T07:08:39.572Z


REPORT - To prepare for the mandatory quarantine system effective from Saturday, a "test phase" was organized this morning at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport. Between disillusioned travelers and besieged staff, the organization still remains to be desired.


To enter French territory, you must now arm yourself with patience, even courage.

Leaving the test area at Roissy airport, Luc says to his wife: "

They are the ones who hurt me the most while testing me, well rebelote

".

Further on, another traveler gets angry.

I was negative before I got on the plane, I'm still negative when I got out, why do you want me to quarantine myself?

I work, Madam,

”he retorts to a nurse before leaving.

In the space of half an hour, a virtual chaos settled in the perimeter of control.

To discover

  • Test, isolation: the procedure to follow in the event of a suspicion of Covid-19

See also -

Gérald Darmanin announces the implementation of "a 10-day quarantine" for passengers from 5 countries

Read also: In Madrid, the false rush of the French fuels a real anger of the Spaniards

In this area, we no longer know where to turn.

We find the border police, civil protection, nurses, and the delegated prefecture.

All of them seem caught up in disillusioned travelers.

And for good reason, these passengers, from India, Ethiopia and Canada, await their results, crowded, without social distancing being truly respected.

The waiting area for antigen test results.

JS / Le Figaro

If airport controls are now required for the six high-risk destinations - Guyana, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and South Africa - as the government decided on Thursday, targeted flights are also concerned. "

They can be a bypass

", explains an officer of the delegated prefecture. "

Like Ethiopia for Brazil, or even Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid and Turkey for others,

" he continues. For them, however, no monitored quarantine, but they will still be subject to the septain in place since January.

In fact, the procedure seems simple when explained to us: once immigration has passed, travelers are brought to a dedicated control area, they fill out administrative documents with name, address and contacts, and then they go to the sampling area.

The results arrive after thirty minutes.

Passengers from the five countries at risk will then sign an individual prefectural order placing them in quarantine.

Antoine, a passenger from India, registers administratively with civil protection.

JS / Le Figaro

The practice, on the other hand, looks more like an organized disorder: if the administrative procedure and the antigenic tests take place quickly enough, the same is not the case for the results.

While the latter usually arrive after 30 minutes at Roissy, they are long overdue.

Some travelers wait an hour, or even 1h30, to get their precious sesame, as is the case for Cécile and Roger, Arthur and Aymeric, from Montreal, as well as for Antoine, or even Luc, who have just arrived from India.

"If we weren't infected before, well now we must be!"

"

Cécile, passenger on the flight from Canada

For newcomers from Montreal, incomprehension is at its height. "

Why are we being placed with risky thefts?

"Asks Cécile, before adding that"

if we were not contaminated before, well now we must be!

". "

The least of things would be to respect barrier gestures and social distancing

", annoys Aymeric in turn, looking at the people gathered around him. “

We come from Montreal and we find ourselves in the middle of all the variants

”.

Luc, who has a business in India, understands that these controls are imposed.

On the other hand, he criticizes their organization: “

In India, we take everyone's temperature and then we organize the tests.

It would still be more relevant to isolate people who have a fever first,

”he says.

In my company, we take the temperature morning and evening.

I never found that my individual freedom was violated.

It made it possible to reveal positive people to Covid

”.

See also -

Covid-19: between “1000 and 1500 euros” fine for those who do not respect the quarantine

Read also: Covid-19: India becomes the new epicenter of the pandemic

At the results counter, other travelers get annoyed: "

You can at least give me clear information to follow

", angered a passenger, when he had just received his negative test by email. He is told that he must wait for an officer to give it to him in paper version, in order to then be able to go through the “

prefectural order

” box

. On the side of the line, some have been there for two hours. “

I saw a lot of people who arrived long after me to have their results,

” retorts a traveler on the flight from Ethiopia. Indeed, some lines have been mixed, we are conceded. "

Fortunately we are only there for half a day

", then blows a nurse.

Read also: The secret of the centenarians who defeated the coronavirus

"

Yesterday, around seven out of 1,200 passengers tested positive

"

Among the travelers from Ethiopia, a man is positive for Covid-19 on arrival, while his PCR showed that he was negative on departure. "

You can stop looking at your cell phone and concentrate,

" the nurse says to the infected traveler, who does not seem envious to undergo further tests. “

You're going to have to tell everyone you've been in contact with in the past 48 hours,”

she continues

.

However, no passenger on the flight will be considered as a contact, or even made aware of what is happening. "

It is subject to medical confidentiality,

" we are told.

So what is the procedure for a person who tests positive?

Once the results have been received, it will be called and put in the last box of the test area: it will then be subjected to an RT-PCR, with targeting on the variants.

If the latter is positive, she will be isolated for a period of 10 days at her home, if she has an address in France.

Otherwise, a few measures are in place: "

It is the police who decide how the latter will be isolated

", a coordinator tells us.

Yesterday, seven passengers out of 1200 approximately were positive

”, we are told, before adding that this situation “

clearly demonstrates the usefulness of this process

”.

Read also: At Roissy arrivals, PCR test controls irritate passengers

For Cécile, Roger, Arthur, Aymeric, Antoine and Luc, all's well that ends well. After spending more than an hour in this reserved space, they finally signed their “

prefectural decree

” authorizing them to leave the area. "

It's a bit like a medal,

" quips a police officer. Antoine, he hopes that this “

test phase

” will make it possible to better organize the device. If an umpteenth nasopharyngeal swab is asked of them at the end of their quarantine, they do not all guarantee to do it. “

It's a bit too much. I will see at the end of the isolation,

”argues a passenger before leaving. “

For now, I'll be reuniting with my family,

” he said as he walked away.

Antoine, who recovers his passport before signing the individual prefectural quarantine order.

JS / Le Figaro

From Saturday, travelers from five countries plus Guyana will be subject to a mandatory quarantine for a period of ten days.

Checks will be carried out at the home of each traveler by the police, "

at least once

" within this allotted time, according to a telegram sent by the "first cop in France" to the prefects on Thursday night in Friday, as an officer of the prefecture tells us.

It remains to be seen whether these checks will actually be carried out.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-24

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