On Wednesday August 26th, Belgium’s foreign ministry banned travel to Paris due to the resurgence of coronavirus cases in the French capital. Belgians returning from Paris have now to take a Covid-19 test or undergo a period of quarantine when back in their country.
Paris and its neighborhoods, together with five more French departments (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Sarthe, Hérault, and Alpes-Maritimes), have been added to the list of red zones where travel is strongly discouraged. Three more French department were already included in the list: Bouches-du-Rhone, Guyane and Mayotte.
The Belgian red zones list already included Romania, Denmark, Andorra, Finland, Malta and some areas in Spain (such as Madrid, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands).
New travel restrictions have been imposed also in other European countries amid spikes of Covid-19 cases. For instance, on August 15 the UK imposed new quarantine rules on travelers arriving from France, Spain and Belgium.
According to the latest figures released by the French national health agency (Santé Publique France), France registered more than 3,300 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday.
Similarly, on Saturday Germany recorded 2,034 new cases of coronavirus in only 24 hours: this is the highest number of cases in almost four months.
On Tuesday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced that the army would be drafted in to reduce the number of infections in the country.
