Travelers wishing to travel to France from China will have to present a negative test before boarding from Thursday.
Faced with the outbreak of Covid-19 cases in China and the potential for a return of Chinese tourists from January 8, the date on which they will no longer be subject to quarantine once they return to their country, the General Management of health drew the attention of health professionals to the situation.
In one DGS-urgent dated this Tuesday – a document intended to alert health professionals to priority health problems – Professor Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, called for “strengthening of genomic surveillance (…) in particular for travelers from China”.
A “degraded” situation
“The epidemiological situation has rapidly deteriorated in China after the abandonment of the ‘zero Covid’ policy. The country is facing a wave of contamination associated with strong tensions on the health system”, he writes.
The document asks health professionals carrying out Covid-19 screening tests to now “systematically question anyone coming to be tested about a possible stay abroad in the 14 days preceding the date of onset of symptoms or sampling” .
In addition, people who have completed a stay abroad and who have arrived in France “less than 48 hours before the onset of symptoms” must be referred to a PCR test, which, unlike the antigen test, allows sequencing.
This sequencing makes it possible to determine which strain of the virus is responsible for infecting the patient, and therefore to identify the appearance of new variants.
Sequencing of samples
Authorities fear that the surge in cases in China, which is characterized by overcrowded hospitals and morgues, could favor the appearance of a new variant like Omicron, which in 2021 caused a new outbreak of contaminations on European territory.
The DGS-urgent sent by Jérôme Salomon on Tuesday asks health professionals to “carry out the sequencing of the sample as a priority”, and to send the results to the National Reference Center for Respiratory Viruses.
A measure which in reality only applies to travelers coming from China. “To date, only the known situation in China seems to justify such an instruction”, details the document. Nevertheless, positive people returning from China are not subject to any specific course of action, recalls the Directorate General of Health.
On Friday, the government said anyone returning from China will have to present a negative test before boarding, and wear a mask on the plane. The Directorate General of Health calls for a “postponement of non-essential travel to China.
