Maria Laura Avignolo
07/29/2021 13:04
Clarín.com
World
Updated 7/29/2021 1:06 PM
France was the only EU country excluded by Britain from visiting the kingdom without quarantine, even if travelers
are twice vaccinated
against the coronavirus.
A decision that generated a crisis between the two countries because the British argument that
the Beta or South African variant
predominates in France
to prevent it is false.
Variant B is predominant in La Reunion, a French overseas territory,
9,000 kilometers from Europe,
in the Indian Ocean, which has just been confined.
Europe Minister Clément Beaune described the decision to "maintain stricter quarantine measures for fully vaccinated travelers arriving in England" from his country as
"discriminatory and incomprehensible."
British planes, at Heathrow airport.
Photo: dpa
He said the decision to exclude France was "excessive."
Speaking to LCI TV, he said: "It is frankly incomprehensible for health reasons.
It is not based on science
and it is discriminatory towards the French. I hope it will be reviewed as soon as possible. It is just common sense."
Beaune criticized the decision, after England, Scotland and Wales announced plans to significantly reduce restrictions on international travel for those who have been fully vaccinated.
Northern Ireland
has yet to announce
whether it will do the same.
Diplomatic crisis
Dominic Raab, the UK Foreign Secretary, said he hoped that “France would get off the
amber plus
list
and move onto the amber list as quickly as possible.
A measure that is likely in the midst of this diplo-sanitary imbroglio.
Defending France's position on the “amber plus” list, Raab said that “the prevalence of the Beta variant on the mainland and in the French Indian Ocean territory of La Reunion had caused concern”.
Responding to criticism that the La Reunion cases should not be taken into account, he said: "
It is not the distance that matters
. It is the ease of travel between the different parts of a particular country."
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He said the British government wanted "to get France
onto the traffic light system
as quickly as possible."
As France is on the “amber plus” list, a special category in the traffic light system that classifies countries according to their case, variant and vaccination rate, it is the only European country excluded from the change, which will come into effect
as of Monday.
Travelers from the 26 remaining EU member states, as well as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, plus European microstates, along with the US, will be able to skip the hitherto
mandatory lockdown
, if they come from an “amber” country. and they have proof of vaccination.
Accepted vaccines
Great Britain requires vaccines accepted by the European Union and those authorized by the United States
but not Sputnik until now.
Raab also confirmed that travelers who had been fully vaccinated "with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine or the Russian Sputnik
V
vaccine
could not avoid quarantine"
if they arrived in Britain.
He said
the only people
eligible not to do so were "those who had received full doses of a vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA)."
Bookings went up 250%
In less than 24 hours, air booking requests
between New York and London
jumped 250 percent.
Transport Minister Grant Shap said that "now is a good time to
loosen the rules
of international travel."
Transport Minister Grant Shap said that "now is a good time to loosen the rules of international travel."
Photo: AP
“We are changing to live with Covid.
90 percent of people have their first vaccination,
73 percent the second
.
The rest of the world is catching up now, ”he said, insisting that Britain is adopting this model
safely
and vaccinated travelers should be tested before and after arrival.
Shap assured that they are guided by the data and
are not discriminating against France.
Thousands of test centers
are opening in the kingdom.
At St Pancras International Station, where the Eurostar train arrives from Brussels and Paris, you can get a PCR test for £ 66 or an antigen for £ 32.
Record of isolates by the "ping"
At the same time, the number of people isolated in Great Britain by the “ping” system of the British health service increases.
There are 690,000 isolated people in England and Wales in the week until July 21, who were victims of the
"Pingdemic"
, as the test and search system has been baptized, which indicates that they should be isolated, until when and until what time.
This figure is 14 percent higher than the previous week.
Alarmed scientists
British scientists are alarmed by the government's decision and warn that the epidemic is not over and may escalate.
They attribute the decision to receive tourists to
economic pressure
from companies on the Conservative Party and they on the government.
Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the ZOE Covid Symptom Study, said that this precipitous drop "in virus-positive people in government data
" is very suspicious.
His study shows that
1 in 84 people
contracts the virus daily, which would mean 60,000 infected.
According to Spector's data, 30,000 of them
had not been vaccinated
and 24,000 had received a single dose.
The government revealed on Wednesday that 27,734 people had tested positive in the past 24 hours.
In Northern Ireland they are cautious.
They believe they may receive a stronger COVID wave because vaccination is
not as fluid
as in England.
83 percent of adults have received the first dose and 71 percent are fully vaccinated.
A risk?
Chancellor Raab did not deny that the government had been warned that opening the border
presented a significant risk
to public health.
He said only that the ministers received a "series of advice" from scientists, which was "reviewed very carefully" at a meeting on Wednesday.
For him, it was just a "modest opening of international travel", which was
"smart and sensible."
Although he admitted that he could not rule out that some people arriving from the United States tried to
falsify the vaccination card
, which they must present as proof of inoculation.
The reason is that many Americans refuse to get vaccinated.
Spain runs the risk of being included in the amber plus list.
Although decisions on the review of these countries are not expected to be made next week, which will take effect on Monday, August 9.
A measure that will affect the British
who are on vacation
or have planned their departure to Spain and the Balearic Islands.
Europeans, except for the French, will not only be able to vacation in Great Britain but also
reunite with relatives
, with whom they have not seen each other
for 18 months.
Paris, correspondent
ap
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