France on “dark amber” list

[PersephoneJames]

You have to quarantine if coming back from France, doubly vaccinated or not.

www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/UK-reviewing-red-list-for-France-Does-the-Covid-data-support-this

"Statistics collected by GISAID, a data initiative that monitors Covid-19 globally in real-time, shows that there have been 88 new cases of the Beta variant in France in the past four weeks, bringing the total to 2,135.

GISAID shows the UK as having four new Beta cases in that time period, and a total of 812 cases. Germany is reported to have 2,197 cases of the variant. "

Tell me this is not politically driven!

This article explains how France and other European countries only sequence a tiny proportion of their positive tests and why it matters for international travel

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/science/covid-variant-travel-green-list-b1855146.html%3famp

@Return2thebasic There is definitely something behind this - politics/money/something because the data just does NOT support this. I am so angry with our useless government right now - they are messing with people's lives.

I know our holiday was a luxury and I feel desperately sorry for people who cannot see their families because that should be an exemption and they should be able to do so - but after 18 months, with teens in Y11 and Y12 who have had their exams impacted, with job stress, home schooling, etc etc etc, I was just so looking forward to a break, somewhere other than my back garden.

This is a direct consequence of the decision to lift UK restrictions.

AsJohnson is going with as many cases as possible by removing restrictions he needs to be very cautious about which variants he is letting rip in the UK.

AZ vaccine was reported in June as being less effective against Beta and they are tweaking it to be more effective and there will potentially be boosters in the autumn. So for this summer with high cases in Uk and no restrictions they need to keep beta out as we have used the AZ vaccine much more widely than EU countries.

What isn’t a problem for France as Pfizer / moderna are good with beta and they have less cases could be big problem for UK where I guess most 40-70 year olds got AZ. Hence why people wanting to go to / from France get extra restrictions.

Beta is currently c5% of french metropolitan cases but they apparently do less genetic sequencing than we do.

Am so sorry for everyone being affected by this

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-uk-government-negotiating-with-astrazeneca-to-secure-south-african-variant-vaccine-12323385

The sky article I referred to above. NB there may be further research which supercèdes this.

3.4% of new cases in France are beta.

They know that, because despite what Boris tells Murdoch to tell you to think, they do sequencing abroad

People with no imagination of “abroad” beyond their two weeks on the Costa can’t bring themselves to care that the government are playing dirty political games with people’s family lives, but the next thing the government decides to wave an unchecked and unscientific law through (sneakily on Friday night to avoid any comeback) could be the law that breaks you and your family.

Divide and conquer, eh? Open your eyes. ITS NOT ABOUT HOLIDAYS.

Germany and Sweden have more Beta cases than France.

www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/French-Covid-tests-change-to-track-virus-mutations-rather-than-for-variant-type

By June 24, the UK had given sequencing information on 477,981 cases, compared to 45,452 for France, to the global data sharing platform Gisaid since January 2020.

Are you saying that isn't a fact?

The uk seems to have a bonkers response. We live in another European country. Levels have been low, but it’s still marked as amber because if we have say 10 cases and it goes to 20 they say it’s gone up 100%..

So our country has a landing ban from Uk due to high numbers in uk and 10 days quarantine on return. Which I understand and wouldn’t mind. But why do we also have to do a 10 day quarantine when we arrive in uk? There’s hardly any cases here and surely a pcr test before flight would be sufficient.

Hundred of other countries are flying in no problem with just pcr tests and all having quarantine free holidays.

It means family have never met Ds as he was born summer 2020. And having to quarantine both ends means 20 days quarantine. Grandfather terminal cancer, my mother had breast cancer last year couldn’t be there for, aunt died. There’s just no end at this rate.

I can totally see why many think sod it and book somewhere nice in the sun.

@PersephoneJames

Germany and Sweden have more Beta cases than France.

But also are not typical holiday destinations for the British.

The UK may have sequenced 10 times as many cases as France choux, but the Uk HAS 10 times as many cases as France.

But surely delta will just outpace beta in France, become the dominant strain and hence beta numbers will go down? Isn’t that already happening?

@PersephoneJames

The UK may have sequenced 10 times as many cases as France choux, but the Uk HAS 10 times as many cases as France.

I think we both agree the UK is doing few of the right things and taking many unfathomable things but since the start of the pandemic France has found more cases than the Uk per Worldometers.

That quote was about genetic submissions since Jan 20 so France submitting 10 times less seems low. But there could be more background to it and I don't think it's central to this thread.

My point is that if Johnson were asking what the biggest risks to his Covid non strategy were, countries which get high numbers of British tourists going and have beta cases would be on that list. As importing back beta which AZ which we have used extensively is not as effective against is a big risk.

The core problem is obviously the decision to lift all restrictions and let every variant spread.

@PersephoneJames

Germany and Sweden have more Beta cases than France.

France is barely sequencing I believe so it could be more cases than what they say they have

@PersephoneJames

The UK may have sequenced 10 times as many cases as France choux, but the Uk HAS 10 times as many cases as France.

This is not true Uk has had 5.3m cases of the virus France has had 5.8m cases

Uk has sequenced 10x times what France has with less cases

Discussions over whether to put France on the red travel list are active in Whitehall amid pressure to make a definitive decision within days.

news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-ministers-to-decide-if-france-will-be-moved-to-red-travel-list-within-days-12357257

They want to make the decision before schools finish. If later than that, they fear there wouldn't be enough hotel capacity to put returning families into quarantine.

@Schulte

But surely delta will just outpace beta in France, become the dominant strain and hence beta numbers will go down? Isn’t that already happening?

Yes. It is absolutely already happening.

[quote Return2thebasic]Discussions over whether to put France on the red travel list are active in Whitehall amid pressure to make a definitive decision within days.

news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-ministers-to-decide-if-france-will-be-moved-to-red-travel-list-within-days-12357257[/quote]
This story is from before the “dark amber” decision. It seems they went for “dark amber” instead of red. Not to say they won’t change it to red in a future review of course.

I don’t understand - people were (rightly) mad for the delay in quarantining travel arrivals from India, this allowing us to be overrun with the delta variant. But now there’s the South African variant coming from France it’s “political”.

Because the beta cases in France are a small percentage of all cases, while India was overran.

@DottyHarmer

I don’t understand - people were (rightly) mad for the delay in quarantining travel arrivals from India, this allowing us to be overrun with the delta variant. But now there’s the South African variant coming from France it’s “political”.

It’s the change of advice so quickly so people can’t make proper decisions

Last week those vaccinated no need to self isolate
This Wednesday they release the new traffic light system and nothing about France is mentioned
Friday night they suddenly come up with a new colour and conditions.

It’s difficult to make plans when on the one hand they’re telling you everything is ok and on the other one they change the rules

I think we’ve known for 18 months that you can’t “make plans”. This is a novel virus which mutates, is extremely infectious and is, to put it mildly, causing worldwide chaos. Of course there have to be changes in direction, u-turns and there will be setbacks as this invisible enemy seeks to get us.

50% of PCR tests in France are screened for variants. Not enough to identify every single case of a variant, but plenty to have a good estimate of its prevalence.