Iran, the country most affected in the Middle East by the Covid-19 pandemic, reopens its borders to vaccinated tourists, after almost twenty months of closure, the authorities said on Monday: "
At the request of the ministry, the National Committee fight against the coronavirus has approved the opening of the country's borders to foreign tourists
, ”said Iranian Deputy Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, Vali Teymouri.
Read alsoTravel and Covid-19: the updated map of green, orange, red countries and restrictions
"
Tourists who have received two doses of the anti-Covid vaccine and who present a negative PCR test certificate of less than 96 hours can obtain a visa,
" the Isna news agency said.
This decision does not, however, include travelers from countries considered "
high risk by the World Health Organization
", which is not the case for France.
A form to be completed beforehand as well as negative PCR tests are also required to enter Iranian territory, specifies France Diplomatie.
Read alsoCovid-19: where can we travel?
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A struggling tourism sector
Iran had closed its borders in March 2020 to foreign nationals, with rare exceptions, a few weeks after the official announcement of the first cases of the virus in the country.
According to the Iranian tourism ministry, the shortfall in the tourism sector reached 1.2 billion dollars over the year 2020/2021.
The number of daily cases and deaths related to the coronavirus is down slightly in the country, which had recorded a record of cases in August, struggling to stem a fifth wave of contamination.
Iran has thus recorded more than 5.86 million cases, including more than 125,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.
By the Iranian authorities themselves, these statistics greatly underestimate the number of cases and deaths.
So far, some 51.1 million people have received a first dose of the vaccine and 30.1 million people have been fully vaccinated in the country of 83 million people.
