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French officials have announced that Britons and those from European Union member states will not be placed in 14 days mandatory quarantine if they travel to France, as suggested by the country’s health minister.
In what appeared to be a direct contradiction of Olivier Véran’s statement on Saturday, the French Embassy in London tweeted that the measure would not be imposed on those arriving in France from the UK or Schengen area.
A spokesperson for the Embassy said Sunday’s statement had come from the Elysée Palace. The Elysée did not respond to the Guardian’s request for clarification.
At a press conference on Saturday, after a meeting of France’s Conseil des Ministres (Council of Ministers), Véran announced: “This quarantine will be imposed on everyone arriving on French soil.” I added it would affect mainly French people and those normally resident in France returning home from abroad.
The minister’s statement appeared to be based on a draft bill extending France’s “state of health emergency” until 24 July, drawn up after the ministers ’meeting. The bill is to be presented to the Senat, the upper house of parliament, on Monday and to the lower house the Assemblée Nationale afterwards.
Article two of the draft bill stated that the quarantine would be imposed on all those arriving on French territory from “zones where the virus is circulating”.
Véran said the details of the quarantine and isolation rules would be published in a “decree”, but there was no mention in either the minister’s announcement or the draft legislation that EU citizens and those from Schengen countries and the UK would be exempted.
“The 14 days [quarantine] is for people who are not symptomatic: isolation concerns those who have tested positive for the coronavirus according to a medical assessment. ” Veran said.
Cases will be treated on an individual basis and those placed in quarantine or isolation – organized by the French authorities and possibly in hotels or designated medical centers – will be able to appeal to a judge. The decision to place someone in isolation would be examined by a judge who would declare if it was justified and fair, Véran added.
Unlike visitors, those already in France who test positive for coronavirus will be expected – not obliged – to self-isolate. “We are relying on the French people’s spirit of responsibility,” Véran said.
There is no indication of when the new rules in the draft bill, to be examined by parliament on Monday and Tuesday, will come into effect.
It is understood that cross-border workers, international transport workers, hauliers and those involved in urgent medical work, currently allowed to enter France if carrying an international attestation, would not be subject to any restrictions.
State television reported there were no plans to test people arriving in France from areas hit by the virus, before placing them in quarantine.
France’s borders have been closed to tourists or those with non-essential reasons to enter the country since 8 April.
Saturday’s announcement gave no indication of when hotels, restaurants and cafes would be allowed to reopen, which will disappoint the French tourism sector, already hit by cancellations and uncertainty. France is the world’s number-one tourist destination, with more than 89 million visitors a year.
Officials in popular holiday areas warned the situation was catastrophic and said many would find it hard to recover.
Georges Mela, the mayor of Porto-Vechhio in Corsica, which attracts 3 million tourists annually, called on the government to introduce a system of “health passports” for those who can prove they have tested negative for the virus in the seven days before arriving in France. The Italian government is considering a similar scheme, he said.
“The collapse of the tourist industry would be a catastrophe for the whole of Corsica, one it would take years to recover from,” Mela said in a statement. Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, has made a similar request.
Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister, has already said France’s borders would remain closed “for the foreseeable future” even after the country’s strict lockdown ends. People have been told to avoid journeys of more than 100km (62 miles) after 11 May.
“It has to be said that this holiday season will not be like others,” Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, secretary of state for tourism, told the national assembly last week, urging citizens to think “ultra-local” when planning breaks this year.
On Saturday, Castaner also announced the extension of fines for those who do not respect physical distancing rules in public places when the lockdown ends. “The challenge in the coming months will be learning to live with the virus,” he said.
There have been almost 131,000 official recorded confirmed cases of coronavirus in France and an estimated 24,760 deaths.
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