Some 200 British tourists have fled quarantine in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier after authorities moved at short-notice to contain a new variant of the coronavirus.
On December 21, the Swiss government ordered people who had arrived from the United Kingdom and South Africa since December 14 to undergo a 10-day quarantine to prevent the spread of more contagious mutation of Covid-19. It also halted flights before allowing them to resume a few days later so stranded visitors could return home.
Swiss media reported on Sunday that about 200 British citizens left Verbier before the end of their quarantine.
The reports suggested some Swiss hoteliers only discovered the guests had vanished when room service trays were left untouched outside doors.
Many of them stayed in quarantine for a day before they set off unnoticed under the cover of darkness.
The Daily Telegraph claimed that of the 420 Britons identified by authorities as being in the luxury resort when the quarantine was hastily enforced, fewer than a dozen remained by Sunday.
Asked about the run-away tourists, health minister Alain Berset told reporters in Basel: “We are aware of that. It is obviously a problem, there was an order to quarantine that has not been respected.”
He said he didn’t know the current whereabouts of the tourists, but suspected that they had gone home.
“One shouldn’t underestimate what an impossible situation it was,” he said. “We had to decide within hours what to do ... That things don’t work perfectly in such a situation, that problems surface is a reality we have to live with.”
Simon Wiget, director of Verbier tourism, told Reuters that the sudden quarantine order had placed local authorities in a difficult situation.
“It’s our role to pass on information, we’re not the police,” he said.
Switzerland joined several countries in suspending travel for Brits after prime minister Boris Johnson warned the mutated variant was up to 70% more transmissible.
Verbier is especially popular to British tourists, they make up 20 per cent of all its visitor in a typical winter season.
Switzerland caused controversy by deciding, despite the pandemic, to keep its ski resorts open.