Switzerland puts much of France, Vienna on quarantine list

Switzerland decided Friday that people travelling from large swaths of France, and Vienna, Austria would need to be quarantined owing to rising coronavirus cases there, but exempted immediate border regions.

Switzerland considers that countries which count more than 60 new daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for 14 consecutive days are at-risk, and reserves the right to impose restrictions, including a 10-day quarantine.

Neighbouring France passed that bar at the end of August, sparking concern that border closures could be looming.

Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset told a news conference Friday that the government had decided to place nine of 13 French regions, including Paris, on its at-risk list, as well as Vienna in neighbouring Austria.

“We have seen a number of new infections in France, which are today already higher that the numbers in March and April,” he said, stressing that “this is a situation to take seriously… We’re trying to keep the pandemic under control.”

At the same time, he said, the government had sought a “pragmatic” approach and thus exempted the border regions in France and other neighbouring countries from the order, set to take effect from Monday.

“The idea is to preserve life along the borders where people live and work,” he said, pointing to heavy cross-border trade, as well as the many people who live on one side of the border but work on the other.

A government statement said it was following the lead of other European countries that are already implementing “a region-based approach to neighbouring countries.

“Taking a regional approach means that persons returning to Switzerland from risk areas will be required to go into quarantine, but not persons returning from regions on the Swiss border,” it said, adding that the decision takes “account of the close economic, social and cultural exchanges that take place in the border regions.”

As for implementing the quarantine order, the government said it would “rely on members of the public to act responsibly.”

Switzerland itself has seen a steady rise in cases in recent months.

The country of 8.5 million people has counted more than 46,000 cases of the novel coronavirus and over 1,700 deaths.

Daily case numbers regularly topped the 1,000 mark in March, before sinking to single digits in mid-June.

Since then, they have steadily risen, and on Friday topped 500 for the first time since April.

nl/vog/wai