Portugal was included in the list, expanded today, of countries and regions that Switzerland considers destinations of high risk of contagion of covid-19, together with Belgium, the United Kingdom and the region of Brittany, in France, that join to other French regions and Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Morocco, Nepal and Oman.
The Swiss Government had already, in mid-September, placed nine French metropolitan regions on the list, but, as of now, all French regions, with the exception of border regions are included.
The list also included two new Austrian regions (Lower Austria and Upper Austria), with Vienna already in existence since mid-September, and a region of Italy, Liguria.
Switzerland considers regions at risk to be those that exceed the number of 60 new covid-19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants considering a period of 14 days.
Kosovo and San Marino were removed from the list.
The Government will, however, have to rely on “individual responsibility” to comply with the instructions, as there is no systematic border control.
Defaulters face a fine of up to 10,000 Swiss francs, or about 9,300 euros.
Switzerland, which has about 8.5 million inhabitants, was relatively spared in the first wave of the new coronavirus epidemic, despite its proximity to Italy, which was the epicenter of the epidemic in Europe for some months.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 984,068 deaths and around 32.3 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February, the American continent is now the one with the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.
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