Holidaymakers from the Netherlands planning to spend time in France will have to be able to show a negative coronavirus test no older than 24 hours when entering the country unless they have been fully vaccinated, the French authorities have decided.

Test certificates will also be checked at airports, train stations and at motorway borders. Previously tests could be up to 72 hours old.

The new requirement also applies to people from Britain, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Greece and follows the updated version of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s coronavirus risk map.

The Netherlands turned red on the latest version of the map, which was published on Thursday.

Germany has also classified the Netherlands as an ‘at risk’ country. From Sunday it will require everyone who has been in the Netherlands within the past 10 days to register their visit online and download a form which they are required to show police on request.

In addition, people who have not been fully vaccinated will have to either quarantine for 10 days, or prove they have recently had coronavirus or tested negative.

Tourists

World Health Organisation senior advisor Catherine Smallwood said in an interview in the AD on Saturday that tourists must be aware they can spread coronavirus if they travel abroad, particularly in countries where the vaccination rate is not high.

Countries such as the Netherlands with a high infection rate have a responsibility to other countries, she said. ‘Tourists should not become the source of spreading the disease,’ she told the paper.