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Switzerland opens spas, saunas and bars in hotels despite coronavirus lockdown

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Switzerland opens spas, saunas and bars in hotels despite coronavirus lockdown
Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Hotels in Switzerland are as of now allowed to open bars, spas, saunas and wellness facilities - but only for hotel guests.

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The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) issued updated guidance on Thursday which expressly allowed hotels to open a range of services. 

The list given by the FOPH, published in the Tages Anzeiger, includes bars, saunas and wellness centres, spas and bike rental outlets. 

These facilities are however restricted only to hotel guests and cannot therefore be accessed by the general public. 

In order to be allowed to open, these facilities will need to be compliant with the country’s social distancing and hygiene rules. 

Inside this Swiss hotel's ‘luxury coronavirus quarantine package'

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Hotels open in Switzerland 

Unlike in neighbouring Germany, France and Italy, hotels have not been forced to close in Switzerland. 

In justifying the original decision to keep hotels open back in March, Health Minister Alain Berset said that the goal was to keep things as normal as possible. 

““The hotels are necessary so that normal work processes can continue. That's why we decided to leave them open,” he said in March. 

“But without the restaurants being accessible to external guests. The restaurants in hotels should only be open to hotel guests.”

While hotel restaurants were allowed to remain open for the duration of the crisis, other facilities such as spas and wellness centres - as well as bars - were closed until the guidance issued by the FOPH on Thursday. 

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