Shortly after the UK announced it was struggling to contain a new faster spreading strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the Swiss government announced a backdated 10-day quarantine requirement for UK arrivals. This affected hundreds of UK tourists already in the winter resort of Verbier.
Around 400 UK tourists, who had arrived after the retrospective 14 December 2020 quarantine cut off date, were staying the Swiss resort.
Hotels and chalets were contacted, and with the help of flight records, UK travellers were located and notified of the 10-day quarantine requirement.
However, many of the UK visitors broke quarantine and quietly left without checking out, contacting hotels later by telephone from outside the country, according to various reports. According to one report only around ten remain.
Some are angered by the back-dated quarantine rules while others are upset by the cavalier attitude of tourists travelling at a risky time to measures aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.
Many have been critical of Switzerland and Austria for keeping their ski resorts open while Italy, Germany and France have closed theirs.
The new strain of the virus has already been detected in Switzerland along with a separate fast-spreading strain identified in South Africa. Switzerland’s government announced two cases of the new UK strain and one case of the South African strain had been detected in Switzerland on 24 December 2020.
On Monday, a record 41,385 Covid cases and 357 deaths were reported in the UK, according to the BBC.
The new strains are not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected.
More on this:
Government press release (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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