(TAN): France told its residents they may need to plan their summer vacations closer to home as travelling abroad could remain out of bounds amid concerns of COVID-19, reports said.
French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said major international travel could be doubtful this summer and that even holidaying within Europe could be restricted in order to diminish chances of a renewal of the pandemic.
“It is too soon to say whether we can take holidays. What I can say is that we will limit major international travel, even during the summer holidays. We will stay among Europeans and, depending on how the endemic evolves, we might have to reduce that a little more. We will know early June,” President Macron was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The European country is expected to start lifting the nationwide lockdown from May 11, when people would be permitted to travel up to 60 miles around their residence without justification papers, as per reports. Citizens travelling beyond that point will reportedly need to fill out forms.
However, it could take more time for travellers to return to normalcy, as the external borders of the continent’s visa-free Schengen area will remain closed for several weeks or months, reports said.
“A trip of several thousand kilometers is, for sure, excluded,” Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, a deputy minister at the French Foreign Ministry, was quoted by Fox News as saying.
The French government has recommended its people to plan trips around the country, partially to contribute to the tourism industry that has taken a huge blow from the virus outbreak, reports said.
France reportedly released a colour-coded map to split up regions based on levels of infection and use it for taking lockdown-related decisions – areas with high infection were declared red zones while low infection areas were called green zones.
“Let’s be very clear: We know how the virus works and for whom it is very dangerous. For someone who is fragile and old, even the green zone is very dangerous,” the French President was quoted by France 24 as saying.
Data from Johns Hopkins University revealed France has reported 174,224 cases of infection including 25,812 deaths.
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