Tag Archives: 3.) Health

© Marcos del Mazo | Dreamstime.com The number of daily new cases has remained low in Switzerland throughout May. The highest number of new cases over this period was recorded on 1 May (119). The latest daily number, published on 29 May, was 31 new daily cases. Since the beginning of May the number has been as low as 10. The total number of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR tests undertaken by 29 May 2020 was 390,688. At the beginning these...

© Octavian Lazar | Dreamstime.com Over the last week there have been an average of 15 new SARS-CoV-2 cases a day. The first confirmed case in Switzerland was recorded on 24 February 2020. In the week that followed the number of new daily infections rose to 31. Another week later the number of new daily cases was 192. The daily new case number then took another 14 days to rise to a peak of 1,464 cases on 23 March 2020 before declining. By 1 May 2020, 39 days later it...

[caption id="attachment_459835" align="alignleft" width="400"] © Vladimir Fedorov | Dreamstime.com[/caption] Working from home is a mixed bag of pros and cons for most Swiss who were surveyed by gfs.bern in March and April 2020. But it worked for most. In 2019, before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, around 1.1 million employees in Switzerland occasionally worked from home. During the pandemic the number of hours worked at home...

© Artzzz | Dreamstime.com More than two thirds are in favour of making masks compulsory on Switzerland’s public suggests a survey run by Tamedia, according to the newspaper Le Matin. In addition, the survey showed widespread support for tracing apps (60%) and reopening schools (70%). Confidence is Switzerland’s government (84%) was high. 45% thought the pace of reopening was appropriate, while 15% thought it was too slow and 38% thought it was too fast. The survey...

© Ellesi | Dreamstime.com Italy is preparing to reopen its borders with the rest of Europe, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. A draft law on new rules was published on 15 May 2020 by the Italian Council of Ministers. It provides for the possibility of allowing entry to Italy from 3 June 2020 without requiring those arriving from certain countries to quarantine for 14 days. The countries include EU nations and Schengen members, including Switzerland and...

© Mangpor2004 | Dreamstime.com On 13 May 2020, Switzerland’s government published more information on the Swiss Proximity Tracing App (Swiss PT), an app designed to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Developed by teams at EPFL and ETHZ, the app uses Bluetooth to detect when your phone comes within two metres of another phone or device with the app. It then records the contact as an anonymous key and the duration of contact, flagging any close contact longer than 15...

© JaCrispy | Dreamstime.com As Switzerland reopens, the details around how SARS-CoV-2 spreads becomes more relevant to everyday life. Matthias Egger, the head of Switzerland’s Covid-19 task force, stresses the importance of continuing to follow social distancing and hygiene rules. However, the Swiss government’s recommended rule of staying two metres away from the next person might not be enough if the next person is singing. Infection requires a minimum amount of...

© Damir Senčar | Dreamstime.com In Switzerland, around 3% of medical staff have been infected with Covid-19, based on data covering the period up until Easter, according to Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health. The highest rates of infection were among staff in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, regions with Switzerland’s highest infection rates. The low rate suggests the Swiss health system has the required material and equipment to protect staff,...

© Jan Gajdosik | Dreamstime.com On 29 April 2020, Switzerland’s government announced plans to allow schools and other establishments to reopen on Monday 11 May 2020. From 11 May 2020, shops, restaurants, markets, museums, libraries, primary and lower secondary schools and sports training centres will be allowed to reopen. In addition, public transport will operate according to the standard timetable, announced the government. The easing is conditional on the...

© Kukotaekaterina | Dreamstime.com A study done by researchers at Geneva’s HUG hospital suggests a Covid-19 infection rate of 5.5% across the canton of Geneva. Antibody blood tests, run on a randomly selected sample of the canton’s population, suggest around 27,000 might have been infected by the virus, a number 5.7 times the official count of 4,733 recorded on 24 April 2020. Geneva is Switzerland’s worst hit canton. By 24 April 2020, close to 1% (0.94%) of the...