Can anyone explain the precise meaning of the wording on the COVID declartion form to enter France?

SadTraveller2020

"I hereby declare on my honour that I have no knowledge of having been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 during the last fourteen days prior to departure."

Specifically, I would really appreciate if anyone has any idea how this meshes with being in contact with someone who tested positive prior to the 14 day period, but before their isolation period ended...

If I'm in contact with someone 10 days before travel and they get a positive PCR test right then, then that seems like a clear 'yep, I've been in contact with confirmed case within 14 days'.

If I'm in contact with someone 10 days before travel but they got their PCR test three days earlier, then where do I stand?

If I'm in contact with someone 10 days before travel but they got their PCR test six days earlier, then where do I stand?

I'm sure you get the point. How do you measure precise 'in contact' days when someone had a positive test over 14 days before travel? How many days after their positive test should you still count meeting them as a contact? Especially as there is now no legal isolation requirement.

eskbanker

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts still has the guidance as being considered to be infectious for ten days after start of symptoms (or positive PCR test if asymptomatic), unless testing negative after six or seven days, so a reasonable interpretation of the French requirement would be that if you're in contact with anyone whose infection window according to that definition overlaps with your 14 days then you can't declare compliance.

SadTraveller2020

Thanks - that was roughly in line with my thinking.

So just to be clear, in this kind of situation, where a family member gets covid prior to the 14 day limit.... you almost certainly end up in the situation where the family member who caught covid is the only one who can end up meeting the conditions. THEY have had no contact with anyone with covid for more than 14 days (kind of by definition, they've been self-isolating), whereas the family members are kind of stuffed even if they continually test nagative, as they HAVE been in contact with someone with covid.

isplumm

from my recent travel to France, no-one checked our documents at all! So you should be ok.