“The objective is indeed to strongly encourage people to be vaccinated”, reacts Saturday January 1 on franceinfo Roland Lescure, LREM deputy of the French of North America after the decision of France to place the United States on the red list because of the progression of the Omicron variant. This measure will require unvaccinated travelers from the United States to “strictly isolate yourself for 7 days”.
franceinfo: This new measure concerns both non-vaccinated Americans and French from the United States?
Roland Lescure: Obviously that the French can return to France wherever they come from. But for the list of red countries, which the United States has joined today, they must strictly isolate themselves for 7 days and may be subject to police or gendarmerie checks. We know that unvaccinated people, moreover during a 6, 8 or 10 hour flight, are obviously more contagious. There is no reason why the 90% of French people who are vaccinated today in France pay for a few French people living abroad who risk contaminating those around them.
Could this pose any problems for those who work between France and the United States?
Yes, but that’s almost the point. Today, someone works between the United States and France and who has to make regular trips back and forth between the two continents, if he is not vaccinated, I consider him to be irresponsible. The objective is indeed to strongly encourage them to be vaccinated, especially for people whose mobility is more or less compulsory for their professional activity.
On wearing a mask from 6 years old in France, why not have announced it on Monday during the press conference of Jean Castex and Olivier Véran?
We are in the process of adapting the announced device on a few details as we move forward. We also expect an adaptation of the isolation rules when we are in contact. All of this advances as science advances. I am well aware that we would all prefer to have one day, one hour, all the rules known. The people who work in government today will do anything to adapt the rules in real time, depending on the knowledge of the information they have at their disposal.
Should we expect more severe restrictions?
I do not hope so. We are putting in place a number of rules that are much less restrictive than in other countries. Quebec has implemented a 10 p.m. curfew. I think we found a good balance. Obviously, we will do everything to avoid going any further. If we are all responsible individually and collectively, that we respect barrier gestures and that we get vaccinated, we will get out of this mess together.