Paris, Apr 18 (IANS): The French government on Sunday announced the tightening of entry restrictions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and South Africa because of concerns about new variants of the coronavirus.

A 10-day compulsory quarantine will apply to people entering the country from these countries starting from next week, reports dpa news agency.

The measure will also apply to air travellers from its overseas territory of French Guiana.

France intends to create a system by then that allows for the verification of location and the corresponding quarantine requirements.

Furthermore, there must be proof of a negative coronavirus test not older than 36 hours.

France has also extended the suspension of all flights to Brazil, imposed early last week.

The measure was ordered because of the Brazilian variant known as P1, which is said to be particularly virulent and is blamed for a sharp rise in coronavirus deaths in Brazil in March.

France has been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic.

In the country of around 67 million, a total of 100,563 people have died as a result of Covid-19, while 5,321,176 were infected.