At Ski Resort, Untouched Food Trays Were a Clue

Hundreds of British skiers appear to have ignored orders to quarantine at a Swiss ski resort and instead snuck out at night for home, reports Reuters. The unusual situation unfolded at the Swiss resort of Verbier, where more than 420 British guests were staying before Christmas, per the BBC. By Monday, fewer than a dozen were left. That's despite a quarantine order put in place on Dec. 20 after a more contagious strain of COVID was detected in the UK. Most of the guests appear to have fled on Saturday night—the telltale clue being scores of untouched food trays outside the doors of the rooms.

"It is obviously a problem," says Swiss health minister Alain Berset. "There was an order to quarantine that has not been respected.” A spokesman for the local municipality complained that many of the skiers "stayed in quarantine for a day before they set off unnoticed under the cover of darkness,” per the Daily Beast. Not all of the vamoosed skiers are scofflaws. The quarantine was retroactively dated to Dec. 14, and some may have followed proper protocol. But stories out of Verbier suggests that roughly 200 of the guests skipped out before their quarantine was up. (More Switzerland stories.)