Andy Wigmore Among Brits Who Fled Switzerland To Skip Quarantine
A top Brexiteer and former diplomat is among hundreds of Brits who fled Switzerland to avoid a pre-Christmas quarantine.
Andy Wigmore, a spokesman for Leave.EU campaign co-founder Arron Banks, was holidaying at the Wengen ski resort when he received a message from Swiss authorities informing him of the mandatory quarantine coming into effect on December 22.
Wigmore, 54, and his family fled to France that day, reaching the border 20 minutes before the quarantine began.
'We were like the Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music, we made it over the mountains to freedom!,' he told MailOnline.
'There were police stopping everyone and asking them if they were British.
'We were among a number of Brits who made it out.'
Wigmore and his family caught a train to Paris and arrived in London on December 23 via Eurostar.
Top Brexiteer and former diplomat Andy Wigmore is among hundreds of Brits who fled Switzerland to avoid a pre-Christmas quarantine. Wigmore (right) pictured on holiday in Switzerland
Andy Wigmore said he had had 'the best time' holidaying in Wengen, a village in the Swiss Alps, before fleeing to avoid a quarantine introduced in response to a new variant of coronavirus being discovered in the UK. Pictured: A holiday snap shared by Wigmore on Instagram
Speaking from his home in Oxfordshire, Wigmore said the message from Swiss authorities warned him not to leave his room or residence and to avoid all contacts.
It also said that a £8,324 [CHF 10,000] fine could be charged for non-compliance.
'The message was pretty ominous,' he told MailOnline, adding that he was contacted several times by Swiss authorities as they attempted to establish his whereabouts before he eventually told them he was back in England.
'If we had not got out when we did we would have missed Christmas,' he said.
The former diplomat also described his journey from Switzerland in an Instagram post which gained renewed attention on Monday when it was reported that hundreds of tourists from Britain forced into quarantine at another Swiss ski resort fled in the night rather than seeing their holidays go downhill.
Last night Andy Wigmore claimed he had not broken any rules, telling MailOnline: 'I am now in quarantine and have been since I got back from France.
'We left Switzerland before the new regulations came into force, so we didn't break any rules.
'I am part of the Oxford Covid test so I had a test before I went to Switzerland, I had a test when I got back from France and I'm planning to have another test in the next couple of days.'
Wigmore and his family travelled from Wengen to Basel before catching a train to Paris and heading to the UK via Eurostar
He wrote in an Instagram post that he and his family 'managed to escape' by crossing into France and catching the last Eurostar from Paris to reach England in time for Christmas
Staff at the luxury Verbier resort, known as 'Little London' for its popularity with British tourists, began to realise guests were missing after trays of food left outside their rooms remained untouched.
A spokesman for the Bagnes municipality in the canton of Valais, where the resort is located, said roughly 420 tourists from Britain, including Swiss nationals, were ordered into quarantine before Christmas.
About 50 fled immediately, Jean-Marc Sandoz told local newspaper SonntagsZeitung, while less than a dozen of the 370 others were still at the resort as of Sunday.
With flights cancelled, it was unclear where the tourists had gone, though Swiss authorities said on Sunday that some had emerged in France, according to Deutsche Welle.
While travellers from the UK require a negative coronavirus test to enter France, the border at Chartelard is often unmanned, one France-based Twitter user said.
Hundreds of tourists from Britain forced into quarantine in a Swiss ski resort fled in the night rather than seeing their holidays go downhill
Switzerland's ski resorts were set to boom with snow-seeking British tourists - but a flight ban due to the new [/news/coronavirus/index.html Covid-19] variant found in the UK put those plans on ice.
Some, like Verbier, remained open as cantons were largely responsible for implementing and enforcing their own coronavirus restrictions before the federal government imposed the flight ban.
The ruling by the Swiss government also included a 10-day retroactive quarantine for anyone who arrived from the UK since December 14, following the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus which experts fear spreads much more quickly.
Dozens of other countries introduced similar flight bans in response to the new variant, tour hà nội hà giang which has spread to several other countries in Europe.
Some of those who fled the Swiss Verbier resort have resurfaced in neighbouring France, according to Swiss authorities
Municipal spokesman Sandoz said many of the Verbier resort's guests from the UK 'stayed in quarantine for a day before they set off unnoticed under the cover of darkness'.
'It was when they saw the meal trays remained untouched that the hoteliers noticed that the customers had gone,' Sandoz told ATS news agency. Calls to rooms had also gone unanswered.
Some later contacted their hotels to find out whether they still had to pay for the nights they'd booked, [ ] reported.
Sandoz said some guests had since got in touch from neighbouring France, where the ski resorts were closed 'but the Brits could at least get some fresh air'.
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He added that according to a Saturday survey of the ski resort's hotels, fewer than 10 people would still be in quarantine.
The rest would either have left or their quarantine time would have expired.
'We can't blame them. In most cases, quarantine was untenable. Imagine four people staying in a hotel room of 20 square metres,' Sandoz said.
Among those who have remained at the resort are Londoners Tom Waycott, 27, and Josh Pitchford, 28, who are quarantined in a room at the Hotel La Rotonde.
The friend arrived from the UK on December 18 for a five-day holiday but were forced to cancel Christmas at home and spend it in their room in Verbier.
Mr Waycott, who works for a Mayfair-based real estate family office, tour hà nội hà giang said: 'It's been quite an experience.
'We have a balcony which has been a saviour because we are literally not allowed out of our room. The hotel has been brilliant and they put food outside the door for us.
'We have stuck to the quarantine because the fine is really hefty.
'A friend told us about a Brit on Christmas Eve who scanned his ski lift pass, which had his name on it, at the bottom of Les Ruinettes lift and by the time he was at the top there were officials waiting for him and a massive row broke out because he was English.'
Catherine Turner, 53, travelled to Verbier from Somerset did not have to quarantine having arrived in the resort two days before December 14.
She said: 'You certainly feel like you have to speak in hushed tones if you're speaking English. You do feel a bit self-conscious.
Switzerland's ski resorts were set to boom with snow-seeking British tourists - but a flight ban due to the new Covid-19 variant raging in England put those plans on ice
'Everyone here is very supportive and they love the English so it's really that you don't want to put them in a difficult position. Not that I think they would 'dob' you in or anything.
'In any case, everyone is very respectful of the rules. It's not like it was Steve McQueen's Great Escape. Anyone would think tunnels have been dug to get out of Verbier.'
Sandoz said some tourists had left feeling 'a little angry with Switzerland' and with the sense of having been 'trapped'.
'Guests from Britain were understandably furious, accosting hoteliers and complaining to the tourism board,' he said. 'We don't know if [ ][ ]newspaper reported.
Swiss officials have sharply criticised the federal government for imposing the retroactive quarantine without sufficient warning and leaving cantons responsible for enforcing it.
Christophe Darbellay, head of government in the canton of Valais - where Verbaire is - said Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health 'had made our work unnecessarily difficult' by introducing the quarantine in such a way,' [ ] reported.
Darbellay added that the canton had made every effort to ensure all requirements were met but said they had received valuable information about the quarantine too late from the government.
Greens National Councillor Katharina Prelicz-Huber said: 'You'd have to laugh if it weren't tragic' in reference to the flight of the tourists from the UK.
She called for more personnel to ensure people were following the rules.
British tourists normally make up 21 per cent of the Verbier clientele, and most start pouring in just after Christmas.
Many Swiss visitors also cancelled bookings, fearing that the resort may have British guests carrying the new strain of the virus.
British tourists normally make up 21 per cent of the Verbier clientele, and most start pouring in just after Christmas
Voted Switzerland's best ski resort for the last two years, Verbier markets itself as offering 'adrenaline-packed thrills, simple pleasures and a chic lifestyle'.
The Verbier Tourist Office has been holding daily crisis cell meetings to try to deal with the ever-changing coronavirus picture.
The resort hit the headlines in early December after visitors shared photos of dense crowds waiting on ski lifts. No one appeared to be wearing a mask or tour hà nội hà giang practising social distancing.
Flights between Switzerland and the two countries were halted on Monday, but the first outbound flights from Zurich to Britain resumed on Thursday.
Two cases of the new British coronavirus variant have been detected in Switzerland and one in neighbouring Liechtenstein, the Swiss health ministry said on Sunday.
Two cases of the new South African variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19, have also been detected, the m[ The Swiss Government obtained the passenger lists from each flight in order to track down the tourists, the website said.
It also persuaded telecommunications companies to send texts to everyone with a UK or South African SIM card, notifying them of the need to quarantine.
Do you know any of the British tourists? Email tips@dailymail.com
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[ Hundreds of UK tourists flee Covid quarantine in Swiss ski resort | World news | The Guardian]
[ Hundreds of British tourists flee quarantine in Switzerland | News | DW | 27.12.2020]
[ Hundreds of British tourists flee Swiss quarantine ‘under cover of night' - SWI swissinfo.ch]
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