Passengers on SWISS flight from South Africa to be contacted
The Swiss health authorities have urged passengers who arrived at Zurich airport on a flight from South Africa to get tested for Covid.
The Federal Office of Public HealthExternal link said it will send text messages to all passengers who landed at Zurich airport on Saturday, according to the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA.
The travelers are asked to go into quarantine and to get tested.
The passenger list of the Swiss Air Lines flight from Johannesburg will be forwarded to the cantonal authorities which are to check the rules are adhered to, the health office pledged.
There are no figures about the number of people on board the flight.
There were no special checks of passengers from South Africa at Switzerland’s main airport according to media reports.
The Swiss authorities previously called on people returning from countries where the new Omicron variant of the Covid virus has been discovered not to use public transport in Switzerland.
The Swiss government on Friday banned direct flights from southern Africa and imposed restrictions on people entering from other countries.
Special repatriation flights from southern Africa are exempted from the ban, the health office said.
The Omicron variant is causing alarm worldwide because it displays a greater number of mutations than other variants and is potentially more contagious.
Several cases have been identified in Europe, Israel and Hong Kong.
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