France bans unvaccinated US tourists

Thank you Bets….unfortunately this is behind a paywall😔

Here you are:

"The French government has announced that the USA and Israel will be added to its orange list for travel - meaning that tourists will only be allowed in if they are fully vaccinated.

The move comes two weeks after the EU removed the USA from its ‘white list’ of safe countries over concerns about infection rates and a lack of reciprocity on travel from the US government.

Individual EU countries make their own decisions on borders, and the French government has announced that from Sunday, September 12th at 00.01am both the USA and Israel will be moved from its green list to the orange list.

This means that fully vaccinated travellers can come for any reason, and do not need to show a negative Covid test.

However people who are not fully vaccinated can only enter France if they meet the criteria for ‘essential travel’ – this includes French citizens and residents returning home, students beginning academic studies in France and essential work trips, but does not include tourism, family visits or visits to second homes.

You can read the full list of permitted ‘essential reasons’ HERE.

Unvaccinated travellers who qualify under the essential reasons rules must also present a negative Covid test less than 72 hours old at the border, and are required to quarantine for seven days on arrival. The quarantine can be done at a private home or a hotel.

To count as fully vaccinated, travellers must

Have received a vaccine that is approved by the European Medicines Agency – Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson (known as Janssen in France). The Indian-produced Covishield vaccine is now accepted by France
Be at least two weeks after the second injection for double-dose vaccines or for two weeks after a single dose for those people who had previously had Covid-19
Be at least four weeks after the injection for people who had the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The American CDC vaccine card is accepted as proof of vaccination at the border.

Once in France, a health passport is required for access venues including bars, cafés, tourist sites and long-distance train travel. For this the CDC vaccine card is not accepted, so a French QR code is required – here’s how people from the US can access that.

Here’s a non-paywalled link (😜😜 to the French legal decree)

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000044033510

To be fair, non-vaxxed Americans can still come IF:

— they meet one of the “imperative reasons “ defined by the French (not tourism, of course!)
— they take a PCR test 72 hours before departure for France (or antigen test within 48 hours)
— they agree to submit to a possible antigen test upon their arrival in France
— they self-isolate for 7 days upon arrival in France.

I always verify elsewhere what is printed in the Local, it tends to be more dramatic than factual. So far, I have not seen this elsewhere, though I always thought it curious that France allowed the unvaccinated into the country but would not allow them to eat in a restaurant.

If the article in the Local is correct, and I assume it is, the information should shortly be available on the French government websites:

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coronavirus-advice-for-foreign-nationals-in-france/

https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Certificate-of-international-travel

Note: the above websites typically have the most up-to-date information, but oddly, the English translations often do not modify the displayed effective dates when changes occur.

Imperative reasons:
refugee, seafarer, family member in France dead or dying, need to take of a family member or minor children resident in France, students, diplomats, court appearance.
Unvaccinated second home owners and all unvaccinated tourists from the US are banned.

BTW, the fully vaccinated rate in France is 79.9%.

I wish this was true but I believe as of earlier this week the fully vaxxed population in France is only 64%.

I bet the confusion about the French vaccination rate is that one of those number is the percentage of the total population vaccinated and the other is the percentage of the eligible-for-vaccination population. The US has a fairly similar gap between those two numbers, though each one is lower than the comparable figure for France.

I, for one, will be happy to fly over the pond with mostly vaccinated people! Vive le mois de novembre!

As of two days ago, 8 Sep, the French vaccination numbers are:

73% of the population have received at least one dose

69% of the total population have been fully vaccinated.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/actualites/a-paris/articles/239732-vaccination-en-france-ou-en-est-on-le-mercredi-8-septembre-2021-nombre-de-vaccin

Those numbers compare as follows with the USA:

63% of the population have received at least one dose

54% of the total population have been fully vaccinated.

https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-states/

Another reason to spend your vacation time in France.

The fully vaccinated rate is 79.9% of the eligible over age 12 population. This statistic is from the government run Tousanticovid app today, September 10, 2021 at 18:10 CET.

I am seeing the French ban on non-vaccinated travelers in the news here as well. It makes me a lot more comfortable knowing that UA requires staff to be vaccinated and that planeload going to Paris has also got to be vaccinated.

Yes! Three weeks from today flight to Paris! Feeling better every day about waiting it out! Felt so iffy for soooo long! People still cringe when I tell them we are going. That’s ok. Not affecting my “decision meter” any more.

all2alb, Have a blast!

there's an article up on the POints Guy about this now

Thanks for the updated news. Good news !!

This morning CNN compared France with the USA regarding the percentage of full vacced, whether the "French model" as put in place by Macron should be implemented here, pros and cons.

Bottom line...a lot less resistance to getting the needed shots over there after the Health Pass was begun....bravo .

We leave in 6 days. Delta was very proactive in sending information out to us. We are fully vaxxed, so all we have to do additionally is attest on a one page form that we have not been in contact....blah, blah, blah.

This is an open jaw trip and we change plans in CDG, so now there is some additional forms to do from there as well. Easy-peasy - if you are vaccinated (and pass and antigen test before returning).