Four Irish among 96 foreigners forced into mandatory quarantine in Austria

Four Irish nationals are among 96 foreigners who have been forced into mandatory quarantine in Austria after alleged breaches of Covid-19 restrictions.

The four were arrested in the St Anton am Arlberg resort on Friday when police raided hotels and boarding houses in search of tourists who were breaking the country’s Covid-19 rules.

Austrian nationals are allowed to ski in the country’s skiing resorts, but foreign nationals are not. The 96 foreigners now face a fine of up to €2,180.

The mayor of St Anton, one of Austria’s top resorts, said this week that dozens of young tourists from across Europe had recently come to his town and circumvented lockdown rules under which ski lifts are open but hotels are closed to tourists.

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“Among others Britons, Danes, Swedes, Romanians, Germans, Australians, Irish people and Poles were checked and fined,” the police force of the western province of Tyrol said in a statement issued on Friday night. It confirmed to The Irish Times on Tuesday that four of the nationals were Irish.

The operation was carried out on Friday evening with 15 officers, and those found in breach face fines of up to €2,180, the statement said.

Austria, a country of just under 9 million people, has recorded 416,000 cases and 7,778 deaths in the pandemic so far. Daily new cases have dropped to roughly 1,500 from a peak of more than 9,000 in November but are now falling only slowly.

It has been in its third national lockdown since December 26th, with non-essential shops closed. In addition, from December 19th to January 10th even stricter rules on entering the country were put in place largely to discourage skiers, forcing arrivals from almost every country in Europe to go into quarantine.

In recent weeks, however, the public has been stunned to learn of loopholes, often involving work or training. Although regular skiers cannot stay overnight at a resort, coronavirus clusters emerged at ski teacher training courses, which were allowed to be held for visitors from across Europe.

Tourist accommodation is only available to business travellers, and St Anton’s mayor, Helmut Mall has said new arrivals there have registered a local address saying they are looking for work even though there are no jobs available.

The police did not say exactly what offences had been committed but said the foreigners had breached lockdown and immigration regulations as well as the law on registering an address.