Swiss impose entry ban for travellers from UK, South Africa

FILE PHOTO: People walk in the shopping street during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lausanne, Switzerland, December 17, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government ordered people who have entered the country from the United Kingdom and South Africa since Dec. 14 to go into a 10-day quarantine and imposed a general entry ban for foreign nationals seeking to travel from the two countries.

"Following the discovery of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the UK and South Africa, the Federal Council today decided to take steps to prevent the further spread of this new virus strain," it said in a statement on Monday, adding no cases of the new strain had been identified so far in Switzerland.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Emma Farge)