Nationals or travellers from these countries will no longer have to go through a 10-day quarantine on arrival, under penalty of a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs (€9,350).

In deciding whether a State or area presents a high risk of infection, new infections per 100,000 persons over the last 14 days are considered.

If the incidence in the country concerned exceeds Switzerland's by at least 60 - more than 760 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest figures - the country is blacklisted.

Switzerland had been relatively spared in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, but for several weeks now the number of daily cases has doubled weekly.

"Nobody wants a second semi-confinement," stressed Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga when presenting the new measures.

In the case of neighbouring France only the Hauts-de-France regions, the capital and Polynesia remain on the list, which means that the pandemic statistics there are worse than those of Switzerland.

To date, only the regions bordering on Switzerland have been spared because of their very close mutual links and the tens of thousands of inhabitants in France who are an important part of the Swiss economy.

The list of countries and regions with conditional arrivals, has thus been shortened and only includes the French regions mentioned, plus Andorra, Armenia, Belgium and the Czech Republic.