Tag Archives: Covid-19 Switzerland

© Banol2007 | Dreamstime.com Late on 20 December 2020, the Swiss government decided to suspend flights to Switzerland from the UK and South Africa following news of the discovery a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus. The decision by the Swiss government follows similar decisions by Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherland. Air, road, rail and maritime links are to be suspended too. The suspension starts at midnight on Sunday, 20 December 2020 and...

An update to an antibody study conducted by HUG and UNIGE suggests that 22% of Geneva’s population had been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus by December 2020. The study which began earlier in the year, and involved 2,072 people, suggests the number of people infected has doubled since June 2020 when 11% of the study sample tested positive for antibodies. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com The latest results suggest the official number of cases significantly...

© Leigh Prather | Dreamstime.com Mistrust of vaccines against Covid-19 continues to rise in Switzerland, according to a recently published survey. A survey run in Switzerland at the end of October 2020, found that only 49% were prepared to take a Covid-19 vaccine, a percentage significantly lower than the 62% recorded in a similar survey in April 2020. Of the other 51%, 25% said they would not take a vaccine for Covid-19 and 26% said they did not know whether they...

Speaking to broadcaster RTS, Swiss health minister Alain Berset said the pandemic was under control and that it currently made no sense to declare an extraordinary situation, a provision in Swiss law on managing infectious diseases that allows the Federal Council to take charge of the situation over and above cantonal governments. Declaring an extraordinary situation would be pointless right now, said Berset. We currently have all the tools we need to act and we must...

© Alexey Poprotskiy | Dreamstime.com On 9 December 2020, Switzerland’s federal government adopted a change to the rules on healthcare to make vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus free to the public. The cost of vaccinations will be covered by health insurance, the cantons and Switzerland’s federal government. Early on in the pandemic in March 2020, the Swiss government decided the cost of testing should be borne by health insurance companies and patients....

© Peter Moulton | Dreamstime.com Update: It appears rail connections between Italy and Switzerland will not be interrupted after Switzerland’s president and the Italian minister of transport spoke on Wednesday. Solutions have been identified to ensure compliance with Italy’s anti-COVID measures. Rail links are expected to gradually return to normal over the next few days, according to a report by RSI. The railway connections between Switzerland and Italy will not be...

On 8 December 2020, Switzerland’s Federal Council announced it was considering further restrictions starting from 12 December 2020 and running until 20 January 2021. The Federal Council announced that it plans to harmonise and reinforce measures recently introduced by the cantons. It will meet on 11 December 2020 and again on 18 December 2020 to decide on further measures to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it said in a press release. The epidemiological...

By Edward Girardet For a nation that prides itself on being on the global forefront of new technologies and science, particularly health care, Switzerland has an astoundingly poor record for dealing with Covid-19. The Lake Geneva region, which borders locked-down France, ranks as one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in Europe. Many Swiss, too, act as if there is no pandemic by crowding into shopping malls or socialising without masks. And in an astounding Orwellian...

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has hit French-speaking Switzerland harder than the rest of Switzerland both before and since summer. 44% of Swiss Covid-19 deaths have occurred in the cantons of Valais, Vaud, Geneva, Fribourg and Neuchâtel, despite making up only 25% of the country’s population. Daily New Deaths in Switzerland, November 27 Source: worldometers.info - Click to enlarge At a recent press conference, Martin Ackermann, head of the Covid-19 scientific Task Force,...

Over the weekend, Switzerland averaged 3,250 new daily recorded cases (9,751 over 72 hours). This represents a significant drop from the daily peak of 10,128 cases reported on 5 November 2020. The 7-day moving average number of new cases in Switzerland is currently more than 40% below the peak around 2.5 weeks ago. Cases in Schweiz, November 24 Source: corona-data.ch - Click to enlarge At the same time Switzerland’s hospitals remain under pressure and the death...