J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

The UK's newly acquired third country status also complicates non-essential travel into the EU and the countries in the Schengen area.

On the 22nd December the EU Commission adopted a recommendation on a EU coordinated approach to travel and transport in response to new variant of coronavirus in the UK. This stated that: "As of 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom will become a third country and Member States shall start applying the Recommendation on the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU to persons travelling from the UK, in view of the end of the transition period. Accordingly, in principle only essential travel may take place from the United Kingdom. In order to benefit from an exemption from this general travel restriction, the Council would need to decide to add the United Kingdom to the list of third countries whose residents should not be affected by temporary external borders restriction on non-essential travel to the EU". https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2520

It will probably be quite some time before the UK is included in the list of third countries for which restrictions should be lifted https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/10/22/travel-restrictions-council-reviews-the-list-of-third-countries-for-which-restrictions-should-be-lifted/

In view of this I think that it is highly unlikely that UK based skiers will be able to ski in the EU / Schengen area during the remainder of this season.

According an article in today's NZZ am Sonntag there was no British exodus from Verbier and Jean-Marc Sandoz is no longer the media spokesman for the municipality of Bagnes.
https://nzzas.nzz.ch/hintergrund/die-flucht-die-keine-war-es-gab-keinen-briten-exodus-aus-verbier-ld.1594611

There is also a shorter article in today's Blick https://www.blick.ch/news/nach-corona-alarm-verwirrung-ueber-briten-im-wallis-die-grosse-flucht-hat-es-gar-nicht-gegeben-id16273513.html

According to the press release the police only carried out 150 spot checks, so its likely that more than 12 people disappeared.

The figure of 100s originates from Jean-Marc Sandoz, the media spokesman for the municipality of Bagnes, to which Verbier belongs. He said that the authorities there had identified 420 tourists from the UK who had to be quarantined. About 50 left immediately, and of the remaining 370, less than a dozen were still there on 24th December.

If it is found that there are grounds for prosecution and the public prosecutor decides not to take action it would send a very bad signal to the local population.

Special transfer services were laid on for the people who were allowed to leave quarantine and the airlines had to obtain special permits for the flights that were arranged to take them back home. It took until the 23rd to put these measures in place. https://www.bazl.admin.ch/bazl/en/home/specialists/air-transport/uk-sa_restrictions.html

The Valais Cantonal Police announced today that they were investigating 12 British tourists who had left the Canton in spite of being ordered to go into quarantine.

https://www.policevalais.ch/communiques-pour-les-medias/valais-bilan-intermediaire-de-lengagement-des-forces-de-police-durant-les-fetes-de-fin-dannee/

Because of the discovery of new, more transmissible strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK and South Africa the Swiss Federal Council banned the entry of people traveling from those two countries on 21st December and instructed anyone who had arrived since 14th December to go into quarantine, in total around 10, 000 people were affected. They were told to follow the procedure given here: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov/empfehlungen-fuer-reisende/quarantaene-einreisende.html#-1306781457

The enforcement of quarantine is the responsibility of the cantons, if the 200 or so individuals who are reported to have left Verbier obtained permission from the cantonal authorities to do so then they are in the clear. If not, they have committed an offence under the Epidemics Act which is punishable by a fine of up to CHF 10,000.

Admin, according to Art. 4 of the 'Ordinance on Measures to Combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in International Passenger Transport' the only tourists who are exempt from quarantine are: "persons who as transit passengers have stayed less than 24 hours in a country or area with an increased risk of infection" and "persons who enter Switzerland for the purpose of transiting the country and who intend and are able to travel on directly to another country". https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/20201948/index.html

On the 23th December the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation issued a temporary derogation from the flight ban to enable the persons ordered to quarantine to return home for Christmas https://www.bazl.admin.ch/bazl/en/home/media%20/Medienmitteilungen.msg-id-81814.html

Earlier today the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health sent a a push notification to every UK / South African phone in CH. The persons contacted were informed that all travellers from the UK or South Africa who came to Switzerland on or after December 14 2020 are to self-isolate for 10 days.

Those contacted were requested not to leave their room or where they are staying and to avoid all contact with other people. If the order is not complied with, a fine of up to CHF 10,000 could be imposed.

This afternoon the Federal Office of Civil Aviation announced a "Temporary derogation from the flight ban for connections between Switzerland, the UK and South Africa", this will enable persons resident in the UK and South Africa currently in Switzerland, and persons resident in Switzerland currently in those two countries to return home to return home for Christmas.

https://www.uvek.admin.ch/uvek/en/home/detec/media/press-releases.msg-id-81814.html

Canton Graubünden has decided that the ski areas in the canton will remain open over the Christmas holidays, provided that the epidemiological situation and hospital capacities do not change significantly. The situation will be assessed on a daily basis.

To ensure that the hospitals are not overloaded, the serving and consumption of alcohol in the ski areas will be prohibited.

The Federal Council has decided all persons who have entered Switzerland from the UK since 14 December must go into quarantine for 10 days. https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases/media-releases-federal-council.msg-id-81777.html

I agree, a 'like' in the current situation would be wholly inappropriate. Switzerland's federal structure sometimes makes things much more complicated than they probably need to be, but as one of my Singaporean skiing friends said last week its "the price of democracy".

Sedrun is in canton Graubünden / Grisons, the cantonal government there will decide on whether its ski areas are to remain open over Christmas tomorrow. In order to get the numbers down Graubünden closed all the bars, restaurants on 4. December, they may have waited too long. The last reported R-value (30.11.2020) was 1.13 and the 7-day incidence for week 50 was 406.

Due to the discovery of a more infectious strain of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK the closure of the border could well be brought forward, Belgium, Holland and Italy seem have closed their borders to people traveling from the UK today.

News of the mutated strain has reached Verbier, 21% of Verbier's skiers come from the UK. A meeting will be held tomorrow to discuss the situation. https://www.blick.ch/schweiz/briten-hotspot-verbier-vs-ist-beunruhigt-und-beruft-krisensitzung-ein-bringen-die-englaender-das-mutierte-virus-zu-uns-id16256938.html