From here it all goes downhill.
According to the Daily Telegraph, more than 400 British tourists fled a Swiss ski resort instead of bypassing a quarantine order requiring them to stay inside for 10 days before climbing the slopes.
The skiers were ordered to isolate themselves under federal order in their rooms in Verbier in the canton of Valais, after the UK announced it was grappling with a more contagious mutation of the coronavirus that has since spread around the world.
But on Sunday, hoteliers told officials that many guests did not answer the phone in their room or eat breakfast on trays outside their door.
Authorities found that less than a dozen of the 420 British skiers to be quarantined remained in their rooms at the expensive resort.
Switzerland banned flights from the UK on December 20 and imposed a retroactive 10-day quarantine for those who had been in the country since December 14. On Christmas Eve, officials said Britons could return home if they took special measures to inform local authorities about their mode of transport.
Local officials have been accused of not doing enough to enforce the quarantine – an accusation that regional leaders dispute, the Telegraph reports.
“Some guests left by car and are now in quarantine in the UK,” Christophe Darbellay, the president of the Wallis government, told the newspaper. “There is a sense of personal responsibility. You can travel throughout Europe without having to identify yourself. The border is a sieve. “
Darbellay blamed the Federal Office of Health, saying passenger information was delivered late, making enforcement “unnecessarily difficult.”
Tourists say enforcing the regulations was confusing, in part because of inconsistent information from the state.
“It was a drop of information that we had and we were informing tourists about the rules as best we could,” Simon Wiget, the director of Verbier’s tourist office, told the Telegraph.
“We identified about 350 people, but maybe there were 500 people if all second home owners and private chalet guests were included, it was impossible to say for sure. Maybe a few people thought they were escaping, but I think the vast majority would have thought they were acting within the law and responsibly.
“People are basically honest and don’t break the law on purpose. It’s all very confusing, even for us, ”said Wiget.
Anyone caught breaking the quarantine will be fined $ 11,000.
The FOPH backed down, saying it had provided local officials with passenger information on all flights from the UK, according to the Telegraph.