Portugal was included in the list, extended this Friday, of countries and regions that Switzerland considers destinations of high risk of contagion from Covid-19. The other countries in the same situation were Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Morocco, Nepal and Oman, in addition to the Brittany region in France.
The Swiss government had already, in mid-September, placed nine French metropolitan regions on the list. As of now, all French regions are included, with the exception of the border regions.
The list also included two new Austrian regions (Lower Austria and Upper Austria), with Vienna already in existence since mid-September, in addition to Liguria, a region in Italy.
Switzerland considers regions at risk to be those that exceed the number of 60 new confirmed infections of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, this in a period of 14 days.
Kosovo and San Marino were removed from the list.
The Swiss government will still have to rely on “individual responsibility” to comply with 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, with about 8.5 million inhabitants, was relatively spared in the first wave of the new coronavirus epidemic, despite its proximity to Italy, the main epicenter of the epidemic in Europe for some months.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 984,068 deaths and about 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 a market in Wuhan, a city in central China. After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February and March, the American continent is now the most affected, with more confirmed cases and more deaths.
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