Everything is down here.
More than 400 British tourists fled a Swiss ski resort rather to evade a quarantine order that required them to stay inside for 10 days before hitting the slopes, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Skiers have been ordered to isolate themselves in their rooms in Verbier, in the canton of Valais, under federal orders, after Britain announced it was facing a more contagious mutation in the coronavirus that has since spread around the world.
On Sunday, hoteliers told officials that many guests did not answer the phone in their room and did not have breakfast served on trays in front of their door.
Authorities found that less than a dozen of the 420 British skiers ordered to be quarantined remained in their rooms in the expensive resort.
Switzerland banned flights from the UK on December 20 and imposed a 10-day retroactive quarantine for those in the country since December 14. On Christmas Eve, officials said the British could return home if they took special measures to inform the local authorities about their mode of transport.
Local officials have been accused of not doing enough to impose quarantine – a charge disputed by regional leaders, the Telegraph reports.
“Some guests have left by car and are now in quarantine in the UK,” Christophe Darbellay, the president of the Valais government, told the newspaper. “There is a sense of personal responsibility. You can travel all over Europe without having to identify yourself. The border is a sieve. “
Darbellay blamed the Federal Office of Public Health, saying passenger information was provided too late, making the application “unnecessarily difficult.”
Tourism workers say enforcement has been confusing, in part because of inconsistent information from the state.
“It was a drop, a drop of information that we had and we informed tourists about the rules as best we could,” said Simon Wiget, director of the Verbier Tourist Office for the Telegraph.
“We identified about 350 people, but maybe there were 500 people if all the owners of houses and guests of private cottages were included, it was impossible to be sure. Maybe a few people might have thought they were escaping, but I think the vast majority would have thought they were acting within the law and responsible.
“People are practically sincere and do not break the law intentionally. Everything is very confusing, even for us, “Wiget said.
Anyone caught breaking the quarantine is fined $ 11,000.
FOPH backed down, saying it had provided local officials with information about passengers on all flights in the UK, according to the Telegraph.