France has cranked up rules against travellers from the UK due to a rise in the number of infections linked to the omicron coronavirus variant, says the French government on Thursday.

One of the tight measures includes the reduction of the validity period of antigen and PCR tests to just 24 hours from 48 hours for arriving travellers as well as limiting reasons to travel from Britain to France.

“We are going to put in place a control….even more drastic than what is currently in place,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told BFM television.

“Tourism and business travel for people who are not French nationals nor Europeans, people who are not French residents will be limited,” he said.

Those coming from Britain to France will also be required to self-isolate for the period of seven days even though isolation will be lifted after 48 hours if a covid test conducted on them in France comes back negative.

The restriction is however not for everyone as it’s meant for unvaccinated travellers from Britain.

“Our goal is to limit as much as possible the spread of Omicron across our territory,” Attal said, adding there were currently 240 confirmed Omicron cases in France.

The drastic measure by the French government is also due to a Wednesday report that showed an increase in new COVID-19 infections in the UK with a daily level since the early 2020 start of the pandemic.

Over 78,000 cases have been reported.

In France, about 65,713 cases of new COVID infections were reported on Wednesday which brings the total cases since the start of the epidemic to 8.4 million while the total number of fatalities is about 120,983.