PARIS, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The French government on Friday unveiled a color-coded map, which classifies countries on the basis of their COVID-19 status to help reopen the country's borders to foreign tourists without risking an eventual resurgence of coronavirus infections.
From June 9, international visitors will be able to enter France following rules based on the health situation in their country of departure and based on their own vaccination status, said Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, minister of state for tourism.
"We must reconcile the principle of mobility with that of health security," Lemoyne told RMC radio. "Nothing would be worse than falling back into another COVID-19 wave in a few weeks or a few months because we had not taken enough precaution."
France will reopen its borders to fully vaccinated people from "green" countries "where there is no active virus circulation or worrying variant," he said.
That is the case for the European Union (EU) member states, as well as Israel, Lebanon, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Visitors from these countries will no longer need to provide proof of their purpose of entry or go into quarantine. However, travelers who are not vaccinated will have to present a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or antigen test taken within 72 hours before their arrival.
From "orange" countries, "where the virus still circulates but is under control," travelers, both vaccinated and non-vaccinated, will have to present a negative PCR or antigen test. Those who are not vaccinated need to have a compelling reason to travel and respect a seven-day self-isolation upon arrival.
Many countries in Asia, including China, most of the countries in Africa, as well as Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, are classified as "orange."
Countries with "active circulation of the virus and of preoccupying variants," including Brazil, India and South Africa, are coded "red" by France.
People from these countries can only enter France if they have a compelling reason to travel. Vaccinated or not, they must present a negative PCR or antigen test taken no more than 48 hours before departure, as well as undergo random antigen testing upon arrival. Those vaccinated are subject to a seven-day self-isolation, while non-vaccinated travelers must enter a mandatory ten-day quarantine.
France, which receives some 90 million foreign tourists in a normal year, lost two-thirds of tourist arrivals in 2020. The country's tourism revenues dropped to 89 billion euros (108 billion U.S. dollars), down 41 percent from 2019.
