DOZENS of Brits who broke Covid quarantine rules by fleeing a posh Swiss ski resort may face fines of £8,300, officials say.
Authorities in Switzerland have the details of around 200 Brits who broke strict isolation rules to stop the spread of the mutant UK variant.
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Earlier this week, it emerged local officials in Verbier had been blindsided by the holidaymakers who fled during the night.
They only discovered they were missing after finding hotel rooms empty, room service trays still loaded with food and vacated chalets.
Yesterday, it emerged that twelve Brits who were not at an address they had been given in Verbier were being hunted by local police.
Some had fled on private jets back to Britain after Switzerland imposed a ten day retrospective quarantine on December 21 on anyone who had arrived after December 14.
Regional president Christophe Darbellay said he had ordered health chiefs and cops to launch an investigation into the moonlight flit.
He said:”We need to get to the bottom of what happened. I have asked for an investigation to be carried out by the regional health department and the local police.
”We need to know exactly how many Britons arrived after December 14 and how many left before the ten day quarantine finished. There may well be consequences for those that left early.”
When asked if those Brits who fled could face possible sanctions, he replied: ”I am getting legal clarification on what action we can take – the problem was that we only received the list of names of British guests two days after the central government made it’s announcement on quarantine.
”We tried with all hoteliers and tourism agencies to find these names.
“But this is a huge exercise that takes time. And they are not criminals, they were just unlucky that there was a Covid mutation in their country.”
A text sent from the Swiss National Health Service to all UK phones in the country said:” Please help us to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant and render yourself into a mandatory 10 day quarantine counted from the date of arrival.
”Do not leave your room or residence and avoid all contacts. In case of non-compliance, a penalty of up to CHF 10’000 can be imposed. ”
Switzerland has reported more than 428,000 cases of coronavirus and 6,534 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
And last night officials said they had identified three cases of the UK variant in travellers who had arrived in the country from Britain.
