As the holiday season approaches, countries in the EU have started to impose tougher restrictions on unvaccinated international travelers.
France added 16 countries to its list of nations of origin that require a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours before arrival. The new restrictions replace older guidelines that simply required a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure.
Those countries include Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia and Greece. Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine also earned spaces on this list.
People traveling to France from Ukraine may only do so for essential purposes. Upon arrival in France, non-vaccinated travelers without a recent COVID-19 infection must quarantine for 10 days.
Guests arriving from Ukraine must provide French authorities with evidence of a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of their arrival.
No new restrictions affect travelers from the rest of the EU. France’s travel restrictions exempt anyone recovering from a recent COVID-19 infection.
France issued these new restrictions due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country and throughout most of the EU. As of November 15, the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases in France has surpassed 10,000 for the first time since September.
Germany, the UK, Hungary and the Netherlands have reported two- to three-fold increases in the number of new COVID-19 cases. Despite the EU’s generally high vaccination rates, experts cite the colder weather and holiday gatherings as reasons for the increase in new infections.