SWISS REMOVE UK FROM QUARANTINE LIST (AGAIN)

Posted: April 26, 2021

UK TRAVELLERS REMOVED FROM THE QUARANTINE LIST – AND MORE GOOD NEWS….

With the vaccination programmes gathering pace in both Switzerland and the UK it’s not a surprise that the quarantine for arrivals into Switzerland has been removed.

All told there are quite a few reasons to be optimistic…

QUARANTINE

As the rules around quarantine between nations continue to fluctuate, the good news is that Switzerland has removed the UK from the quarantine list for arrivals.

This decision has been in place for a few weeks now and the UK was officially removed on March 25th from the ‘risk list‘, but the situation seems to be stable and the UK is not likely to feature on the list again any time soon.

Naturally as new strains are identified there is always the risk that the situation can change.

But it’s an encouraging new status-quo.

So if you come to Switzerland from the UK you won’t have to quarantine on arrival – but, of course, you will legally need a negative PCR test to travel.

This is great news for two reasons – it means the Swiss see the level of virus in the UK as acceptable and all that the extensive vaccination in the UK makes travellers from the UK a safer option, it also means that travel to Switzerland (from a Swiss perspective) is perfectly possible.

SWISS VACCINATIONS

Meanwhile in Switzerland the news is also looking positive as the Swiss ramp up the vaccination programme with around 2.7 million people having already received their first jab – and in a nation of 8.5 million with 7.2 million adults that’s a significant proportion (about 38% if you don’t have a calculator to hand).

Meanwhile around 10% of the entire population has received two doses of the vaccine.

Naturally people are keen for this to go quicker but with an estimated 15 million doses already purchased by the Swiss, it’s likely that anyone who wants vaccination can have their first jab by (or during) the summer.

In fact in the last few weeks the rate of vaccinations has been increasing significantly.

WHAT ABOUT LEAVING THE UK?

This is still a restriction for recreational travel – with foreign holidays banned and effectively illegal.

However for British trainees who are keen to take instructor exams there is still an exception to this law for those travelling for education and training if it is “reasonably necessary for the person to leave the United Kingdom to attend that course”.