While Switzerland started to ease pandemic related requirements and opened its borders, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country is slowly rising again. In response, Swiss authorities announced the following restrictions in effect as of July 6, 2020:
- Wearing of Masks - Compulsory on public transportation from July 6 onward
All people over the age of 12 must wear a mask while using public transportation, which includes trams, buses, trains, mountain rail and cable cars, and lake and riverboats.
- Quarantine - travelers from certain regions must quarantine for 10 days upon arrival from July 6 onward
Starting July 6th, travelers who have spent any time in certain regions within 14 days of entry to Switzerland must quarantine for 10 days.
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) maintains a list of the countries concerned, which it updates regularly. The country list can be found at the end of the Ordinance COVID-19 on international travel.
Currently, the list of countries from which travelers need to quarantine are:
Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Chile, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Iraq, Israel, Qatar, Columbia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Moldova, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Peru, Russia, Saudi-Arabia, Sweden, Serbia, South Africa, Turks and Caicos, and the United States.
Affected travelers will be notified during the flight, onboard coaches, and at border crossings. They will be required to register with the cantonal authorities upon arrival. Airlines and travel companies will also be instructed not to transport sick passengers.
Exceptions to the mandatory quarantine as mentioned above apply to staff transporting goods or persons. Exceptions also apply to persons entering for urgent professional or medical reasons and whose stay lasts a maximum of 5 days.
Please note that anyone who is obligated to quarantine and does not do so is liable to be fined up to CHF 10'000.
- Entry Restrictions - expected to be lifted for an initial group of third country nationals starting July 20, 2020
While the EU Council recommends lifting entry restrictions that will apply to 15 specific countries from July 1, 2020, the Swiss Federal Council is expected to follow these recommendations. However there is an exception for Serbia, which will lift restrictions starting on July 20, 2020. On July 20, 2020, the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) intends to remove Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay and the EU states outside the Schengen area (Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia, Romania and Cyprus) from the list of high-risk countries. China is also expected to be removed from the list in line with the EU recommendations, provided it guarantees reciprocal rights of entry to people travelling from Switzerland.
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