Vaccinated Americans and others who screen negative for Covid-19 would be allowed to fly to France “with a special pass,” according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron told CBS News’ “Face the Country” this morning that Americans who have been vaccinated or have a negative Covid-19 test result will be able to fly to France as soon as this summer.
About the fact that France is now in its third national lockout, Macron stated that the vaccine rollout in his country is progressing.
“Because we accelerated demand in Europe, we are surely catching up, and we will be able to reach our goals for what we have now,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We would gradually loosen the constraints imposed in early May,” Macron said. “This ensures that we will arrange summer activities for our experts in France for French European citizens, as well as American citizens,” he said.
“So we’re working hard to come up with a really concrete solution, especially for vaccinated US people, so with a special pass, I’d say.”
According to Macron, the White House and the Élysée Palace are “finalizing the technical discussions” about how to reopen travel.
“We are developing a European certificate to make travel easier following these testing and vaccine restrictions between European countries.”
He was referring to the European Union’s proposals for a digital green certificate that will show that an individual had been sufficiently vaccinated against the disease, got a recent negative test result, or healed from Covid-19 recently.
For months, the European Union has been working on a digital health credential. President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in January that she supports the development of a standard EU-wide vaccination certificate, also suggesting that such a certificate may be a “medical prerequisite.”
“And the intention is to give it to American citizens who have agreed to vaccinate or who have had a PCR test come out negative. So the idea is to keep the virus under control at all times, to optimize vaccination, and to gradually loosen the restrictions,” said Macron.