France bans non-essential travel from the Bailiwick - but Condor will still sail

Thursday 16 December 2021

Non-essential journeys between the Bailiwick and France will be banned from Saturday.

The States have confirmed that the Bailiwick is included in the French Government's decision to stop non-essential travel from the UK following a surge in omicron covid-19 cases.

The States said: "Today the French Government is announcing changes to its restrictions on travellers from the UK entering France. This to slow the spread of omicron. These changes will come into force from 00:00 on Saturday 18 December 2021. This will apply to travellers from the Bailiwick."

The French Government said that travellers from the Crown Dependencies or the UK would need an "essential reason" to enter France - whether they are vaccinated or not. Tourism and business travel will not be considered as valid reasons to enter the country. 

French citizens and their families and EU citizens travelling home via France will not need an essential reason to travel. 

Anyone entering France will need a negative PCR or antigen test from the past 24 hours and will have to isolate upon arrival at a registered address for seven days or for 48 hours if they can show a negative test.

Further details of the changes can be found HERE.

The UK recorded nearly 79,000 covid-19 cases on Wednesday. Around 10,000 individuals are confirmed as having the omicron variant.

Locally, a handful of omicron cases have been detected so far. But the Medical Officer of Health, Dr Nicola Brink, has warned the Bailiwick to expect "a tidal wave" of omicron in the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, the Civil Contingencies Authority announced additional restrictions and new guidance in an effort to limit the spread of omicron this side of Christmas. 

The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture is ending the school term on Friday rather than next Wednesday as originally planned but last night decided to close the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre with immediate effect after a case of omicron was discovered in a student there.

A spokesman for the French Government, Gabriel Attal, said the travel ban was aimed at "tightening the net" to slow down the arrival of omicron cases in France.

"Our strategy is to delay as much as we can the development of omicron in our country and take advantage to push ahead with the booster drive," he said.

Despite the ban on non-essential travel, Condor Ferries said it would maintain sailings between the Channel Islands and France over Christmas and New Year.

The company said it would run its planned timetable from Guernsey and Jersey to St Malo from tomorrow, Friday 17 December, until 3 January.

Elwyn Dop, Condor’s Operations Director, said: "We want to provide schedule certainty to all our passengers that our sailings are to operate over the festive period, despite the latest change in regulations. We accept that some islanders may have concerns - so [we] want to reassure everyone of our commitment to maintaining connectivity with France."