Switzerland takes Belgium and Mexico off Covid-19 ‘high risk’ list

Mexico has recorded 634,023 coronavirus infections and 67,558 confirmed deaths, the world's fourth highest death toll. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

People arriving in Switzerland from Belgium, Mexico and Luxembourg will no longer have to go into quarantine for ten days.

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) on Monday updated its listExternal link of countries deemed to have a high risk of coronavirus infection and removed Belgium, Mexico, Luxembourg, El Salvador, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Oman.

But it added Croatia, French Polynesia, Guyana, Lebanon, Libya, Paraguay, San Marino, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates to the list of 55 high-risk countries.

Under Swiss regulations, anyone entering Switzerland from one of the countries on the new list has to go into quarantine for ten days to help curb the spread of Covid-19, or risk a fine.

Who can travel?

Under the current Covid-19 measures travel remains possible between Switzerland and most other countries of the European Union, EFTA, and the UK. However, due to a rise in infections travellers from Switzerland to the UK must go into quarantine for 14 days.

Those travelling from most non-Schengen countries can only enter Switzerland in exceptional cases. The Swiss authorities have created a listExternal link of 19 safe non-Schengen countries not affected by this ban.

Since mid-April Switzerland has witnessed a slow increase in new coronavirus cases to a seven-day average of 324 a day. However, the daily numbers fluctuate. On September 4, 405 cases were registered in Switzerland and Liechtenstein over the previous 24 hours, while on September 7, there were 191 new cases.

Despite the recent increase, Stefan Kuster, the head of communicable diseases at FOPH, said last week that he was not worried.

The situation was also stable in terms of hospitalisations and deaths, he said: “At the moment we’re not talking of a second wave. We’re talking of a slow increase in infections. The efforts of the population and the cantons are bearing fruit.”