HomeNewscoronavirusCOVID-19 update | France to impose 10-day quarantine for India travellers

COVID-19 update | France to impose 10-day quarantine for India travellers

The move comes a few days after Paris announced a ban on all flights from Brazil to stave off the P1 coronavirus variant, and required quarantines for passengers on flights from Argentina, Chile and South Africa.

April 21, 2021 / 20:10 IST
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French President Emmanuel Macron attends a weekly meeting about the vaccination campaign, with Prime Minister Jean Castex, Secretary General of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler, Government's spokesman Gabriel Attal, Health Minister Olivier Veran, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, France, Tuesday April, 20, 2021. (PC-AP Photo/Lewis Joly, pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a weekly meeting about the vaccination campaign, with Prime Minister Jean Castex, Secretary General of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler, Government's spokesman Gabriel Attal, Health Minister Olivier Veran, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, France, Tuesday April, 20, 2021. (PC-AP Photo/Lewis Joly, pool)

France will impose a 10-day quarantine for travellers arriving from India in the coming days to prevent the spread of a worrying Covid-19 variant that is hammering Indian hospitals, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Wednesday.

The move comes a few days after Paris announced a ban on all flights from Brazil to stave off the P1 coronavirus variant, and required quarantines for passengers on flights from Argentina, Chile and South Africa.

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COVID-19 update | France expects to lift domestic travel restrictions on May 3

"For certain countries where the health situation is very serious and worrisome in particular, we will again tighten the screws," Attal said after a cabinet meeting on the pandemic response.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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