Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

On 4 June 2021, Swissmedic, Switzerland’s drug approval authority, announced it was extending authorisation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to 12-15 year olds. © Irina Zharkova | Dreamstime.com The vaccine, also known under the brand name Comirnaty®, has had temporary ordinary authorisation for use in Switzerland on people aged 16 or over since 19 December 2020. Swissmedic started looking at approving the vaccine for use on younger people on 7 May 2021 and reviewed...

As we move through time scientific research improves our understanding of the world. The resulting revelations often point to changes that could lead to progress. However, these changes are rarely painless. © Prot Tachapanit | Dreamstime.com Shifting away from the use of antibiotics on livestock and the agricultural use of pesticides are not small adjustments. They underpin current farming methods on many Swiss farms. And using these substances has clear short term...

Last week, negotiations between Switzerland and the EU ended after failure to find agreement on key elements of a deal governing the relationship between Switzerland and the bloc. Over the weekend, Switzerland’s president Guy Parmelin defended the abrupt break in negotiations and sent a clear message to EU strategists in Brussels. Speaking to the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag Parmelin said that the EU would harm itself if it sank trade relations with one of its most important trading...

On 23 December 2021, a 90-year old resident of Luzern, was the first person in Switzerland to be vaccinated against Covid-19. In the roughly 5 months since then, more than 3 million people in Switzerland have received at least one dose of vaccine, representing around 36% of the population. © Alexey Novikov | Dreamstime.com By 1 June 2021, 1.75 million (20% of the population) were fully vaccinated and a further 1.32 million (15% of the population) were partially...

This week, 5,670 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Switzerland, down 28% from the week before (7,843), continuing the downward trend of new numbers of recorded infections. © Fabiobalbi | Dreamstime.com The daily number of cases on a 7-day rolling average has more than halved (-58%) in 4 weeks falling from 1,924 to 810. With around 34% of Switzerland’s population vaccinated with at least one dose by 26 May 2021, vaccination appears to be having a positive impact on...

A recent study by Interpharma and Santésuisse shows how rapidly drug prices have risen in Switzerland over the 10 years to 2020. © Artemiy Sobov | Dreamstime.comBetween 2010 and 2020, medicine prices have risen by nearly 37% in Switzerland. In addition, the cost of basic health insurance has risen at 3 times the rate of GDP over the same period. There are three main reasons for high Swiss drug prices according to the report: too many generic drugs, excessive margins and high factory...

On 27 May 2021, the UK was added Switzerland’s list of risk countries. This means that anyone arriving in Switzerland from the UK from 6pm on Thursday must quarantine upon arrival, with a few exceptions. © Tommy Beattie | Dreamstime.com The UK was added to the Federal Office of Public Health’s (FOPH) list of countries with a worrying variant, alongside Brazil, Canada, India, Nepal and South Africa. A number of other countries and regions are listed because of...

The total number of hours worked in Switzerland in 2020 dropped by nearly 4% compared to 2019, announced the Federal Statistical Office this week. © Thanasak Boonchoong | Dreamstime.comIn a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic total hours worked in Switzerland dropped by nearly 300 million or 3.7% compared to the previous year. In 2019, 7.9 billion hours of work were clocked up in Switzerland. In 2020, this figure fell to 7.6 billion. Unsurprisingly, the biggest falls in hours...

A recent survey of expats presents Switzerland as a double edged sword. The survey, which covers 59 nations, ranks Switzerland near the top on quality of life but near the bottom on cost. © Bartolomiej Pietrzyk | Dreamstime.comIn the ranking by InterNations, Switzerland is listed 30 out of 59 countries overall for its attractiveness to expats. However, its score contains both bright and a dark spots. On quality of life, Switzerland ranked 9th. 99% of those surveyed said they were happy...

Initially, in Switzerland, only those who have been vaccinated will get a Covid certificate. Those who have received a negative test result or have been infected and recovered will have to wait, according to a report in the TagesAnzeiger. This information was later confirmed by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), according to RTS. © Chaiyan Anuwatmongkonchai | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge For those who have been vaccinated, Covid certificates will be...