COVID-19 – Q&A from the press briefing (12 March 2020)

Q: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that the spread of COVID-19 has reached pandemic proportions. What consequences does this announcement have for French citizens around the world?

A: The French authorities are monitoring the international situation with the utmost attention and are engaging in extremely close cooperation with all of our European and international partners, as the minister for solidarity and health reaffirmed yesterday. On President Macron’s initiative a special meeting of the EU heads of state and government took place the day before yesterday in order to strengthen European coordination on health measures, research efforts and our economic response.

As you know, the situation is evolving rapidly and the authorities of each country concerned must take measures in connection with the COVID-19 crisis.

We continue to urge our compatriots to consult the travel advice page of the France Diplomatie website (https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux-voyageurs/), which is constantly updated based on the public health recommendations issued by the Ministry for Solidarity and Health. We would like to remind French nationals traveling abroad that they should register on the Ariane platform in order to receive alerts. We encourage French residents to sign up to the Registry of French Nationals Abroad and to update, if necessary, their contact information provided to the consular services (cell phone number, email address).