France to welcome Brit tourists from June as long as you have a ‘Covid health pass’ – World News

Brits will be allowed back into Covid-ravaged France from June as long as they have a ‘health pass,’ it has emerged.

Details of a new roadmap out of the pandemic agreed by President Emmanuel Macron were leaked to the media on Thursday.

The plans will allow British travellers – the biggest visitor group to Paris – as well as other foreign nationals back into the country if they have proof of being vaccinated or provide a negative PCR test.

“Foreign tourists will be allowed to return to French soil with the health pass,” a government source told French regional media representatives.

It is not confirmed whether the pass will require a single dose or a full round of vaccinations to be effective.

France is currently in lockdown, but this will gradually be lifted in May as restaurants and bars are allowed to re-open.

The four-phase plan will see France fully re-opened just nine days after the UK, despite its higher infection, hospitalisation and death rates.

France still has some 6,000 Covid patients in intensive care.

But Macron’s full plan is expected to see an end to a national travel ban from May 3.

Phase two will begin on May 19, when the current 7pm curfew will be extended to 9pm and restaurant, bar and café terraces can re-open.

Museums, theatres, cinemas, and non-essential shops can open doors on that date too, with a maximum capacity of 800 people indoors and 1,000 outdoors.

Cafes and restaurants will then be allowed to serve clients indoors from June 9, when the curfew will not start until 11pm.

June 9 is also the date when the ‘health pass’ will come into force. Along with foreign travel this will also be used for people attending mass gatherings of up to 5,000 people, such as football matches or music festivals.

June 30 will also mark the end of the curfew and a return to near-normality.

The roadmap will be nationwide unless the health situation deteriorates in a particular region, in which case ‘emergency brakes’ will be applied.

Roland Héguy, head of France’s main hotel and restaurant union Umih, said: “At last we have dates, we have the keys to getting out of lockdown and can organise ourselves to work over the three phases.”

But epidemiologist Catherine Hill told BFM TV: “Today, we have more people arriving in intensive care than in the peak in November, so the situation is really very bad and that is the moment the government chooses to take its foot off the brake. It’s absolutely not reasonable. The virus continues to circulate.”

France has vaccinated 14.6 million people with at least one dose and is on track to reach 20 million by mid-May, and 30 million by mid-June.

The country has recorded 5.57 million Covid-19 cases and 103,947 deaths since the start of the pandemic.