France has removed the necessity for people travelling to and from seven countries to have a compelling reason to travel from 12 March. The restrictions were introduced five weeks ago.
The countries included in the new loosening of restrictions are Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea because of the specific health situation in those countries. The United Kingdom is also on the list due to "the very wide dissemination of the British variant in France", the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has announced.
While the restrictions have been lifted, arrivals from these countries must present a negative PCR test result obtained less than 72 hours before departure.
France is still strongly advising that people should limit international travel as much as possible.
The list of compelling reasons has also been expanded to include married couples and couples in civil partnerships, where one member lives abroad for professional reasons, separated couples with children, one of the couple living in France and the other abroad and those returning to their main residence when it is in France.
Although the restriction on travel to and from the UK has been lifted by France, international travel from the UK is only permitted for essential reasons which includes for work purposes but only for a limited set of occupations.