France says UK visitors must show they have had a negative Covid test in past 24 hours if they have not been vaccinated

• Prime Minister Jean Castext made the announcement on new rules yesterday  
• Rule only applies to those who haven't had two jabs of an approved vaccine 
• UK Government hasn't lifted 10-day quarantine for vaccinated Brits from France

France has announced that visitors from the UK must have proof of a negative Covid test in the past 24 hours if they haven't been vaccinated. 

Along with UK visitors, tourists from Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and the Netherlands, will have to take a Covid test the day before travelling to France. 

Prime Minister Jean Castex made the announcement, which is a crackdown on the country's previous rule on UK visitors needing a negative test within the past 48 hours, yesterday.   

But the rule only applies to those who haven't been double-jabbed with a vaccine recognised by the European Medicins Agency - Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson.  

Meanwhile, the UK Government is set to lift the 10-day home quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated Britons returning from Amber List countries from tomorrow.

But in an unexpected twist, the Department for Transport announced on Friday night that the rule will not apply to France.

France, which has a significantly lower case rate than the UK, retaliated last night by tightening its Covid restrictions for those entering from Britain.

And although the country has a lower case rate than the UK, there has been an increase from 1,874 on June 26 to 5,811 on Friday. 

President Emmanuel Macron recently announced that vaccine passports would be needed for entry to most public places and that all healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated or they could face consequences. 

Roughly half of France's population, 35.5million people, has received at least one vaccine.   

Speaking about possible changes to the UK's amber lists, Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told i: 'It is now known as an amber plus list, whether they like it or not.

'France is one of the big three countries we visit each year and I think the concern is the Government will be looking at Spain and Greece and potentially add those to the amber plus category.

 'I think we may see further changes as countries see higher infection rates.'