Switzerland removes Mexico from its COVID-19 high-risk list

Switzerland’s government has removed Mexico and El Salvador from its list of countries with a high risk of coronavirus infection, which means that as of this week, travelers who come from those countries will not need to be in quarantine; however, Paraguay has been recently added to the list.

The list is updated weekly by Switzerland’s Health Ministry according to the evolution of the pandemic in each country. Other nations that have also been removed from the list are Belgium and Luxembourg. Nevertheless, countries like Croatia, Lebanon, and Ukraine have been added to the list of nations with a surge of infections.

Some countries that have remained on the list for several weeks are Spain (including the Balearic Islands but not the Canary Islands), the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, and Peru; the list includes a total of 55 countries.

Travelers that come from the countries on the list and that want to enter Switzerland must go into quarantine for 10 days and according to Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health, “anyone who fails to comply with the quarantine requirement or the duty to report to the authorities is committing an offense under the Epidemics Act, which can be punished by a fine of up to CHF 10,000.”

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Moreover, it added that a negative test result does not exempt travelers from the mandatory quarantine requirement or shorten the quarantine period since a negative result does not rule out a COVID-19 infection.

People who enter Switzerlands having spent more than 24 hours in an area with an increased risk of infection at any point of the past 14 days is expected to go immediately to their home or any suitable accommodation upon arrival while keeping a minimum distance of 1.5 meters from other people or at least wear a mask and avoid public transport if possible.

Switzerland removes Mexico from its COVID-19 high-risk list

Then, they must report their arrival to the cantonal authority responsible within two days and follow their instructions. For 10 days after their arrival in Switzerland, they must stay in their homes or other suitable accommodation without going out and avoid contact with other people.

Switzerland

, like other European countries, has registered a significant rise in daily cases during the last week although it is far from the numbers registered in March when it surpassed a thousand daily cases for several days.

Likewise, COVID-19-related deaths in Switzerland (1,732 since the beginning of the pandemic) have remained under 10 per day since May 7 and there have been no deaths registered on several days.

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