Switzerland : British tourists flee Ski Resort to avoid Quarantine
Forced into a ten-day quarantine in the Swiss Ski Resort of Verbier, hundreds of British tourists escaped under cover of night.
After the discovery of the new strain of Coronavirus in the UK, The swiss governement has imposed quarantine measures for anyone who arrived in the country from Britain since December 14.
Around 200 of the 420 of the affected Britons in Verbier who were ordered to quarantine are thought to have left in the night, rather than remain indoors for more than a week and see their plans go downhill.
Some of the british holidaymakers left immediately, while others stuck it out for a short time before quitting, according to a local newspaper.
“Many of them stayed in quarantine for a day before they set off unnoticed under the cover of darkness,” Jean-Marc Sandoz, a spokesman for the wider Bagnes municipality, told the SonntagsZeitung.
Speaking about the hotel staff, Mr Sandoz told the ATS news agency: “It was when they saw the meal trays remained untouched that the hoteliers noticed that the customers had gone.”
He said that according to a survey on Saturday of the resort’s hotels, fewer than 10 people would still be in quarantine and the rest would either have left or their isolation time would have ended.
“We can’t blame them. In most cases, quarantine was untenable. Imagine four people staying in a hotel room of 20 square metres,” Mr Sandoz added.
He said the tourists had left feeling “a little angry with Switzerland” and with the sense of having been “trapped”.
British tourists usually make up 21% of Verbier’s visitors, and most start arriving after Christmas.