America advises against travel to France due to Covid risk
France has been placed on level 4 travel alert status by the US government, meaning ‘do not travel’
25 cases of the Omicron variant, which is thought to be more contagious than the Delta variant, have been detected in France
EA March / Shutterstock
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday (December 6) advised people in the US not to travel to France due to the risk of Covid.
The public agency changed France’s travel status to level 4, the highest level, writing "avoid travel to France".
It stated: "If you must travel to France, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel".
Following the CDC’s level change, official travel advice from the US federal government also changed from Level 3 to the top Level 4, and now states: “Do not travel to France due to Covid-19".
The CDC updated the status of several countries to level 4 yesterday, including Portugal, Andorra and Cyprus.
France is now recording an average of over 41,000 new Covid cases each day, a sharp rise since the end of October when only around 5,000 cases were being detected.
Read more: Daily updates on the Covid situation in France
The country’s health minister, Olivier Véran, said yesterday that 25 positive cases of the Omicron variant of Covid have been identified in France. Mr Véran said that the variant appears to be much more contagious than the Delta variant, which is currently the dominant strain in France.
Yesterday, the government announced that nightclubs in the country would be closed for four weeks starting at the weekend, and that stricter mask wearing rules would be brought into schools.
Read more: Covid-19: Rules for travel to and from France
Related stories
Covid: What will Christmas in France be like? This is what experts say
