Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

Switzerland’s GDP fell by –2.6 % in the 1st quarter of 2020, after rising by +0.3% in the previous quarter, according to a government press release. © Michael Müller | Dreamstime.comDue to the coronavirus pandemic and the measures to contain it, economic activity in March was severely restricted, said the statement. A global slowdown also affected exports. The service sector was the worst hit with accommodation and food services down -23.4%. Transport and communications (-5.1%), trade...

© Martinmark | Dreamstime.com Based on data from the first wave of Covid-19, epidemic modellers in Zurich estimate Switzerland would have suffered 22,000 deaths without the restrictions on daily life introduced in March 2020. The modelling, done by Fadoua Balabdaoui and Dirk Mohr at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), estimates nearly 75% of Switzerland’s population would be infected by now. One of the difficulties decision makers face when...

© Mengtianhan | Dreamstime.com 2.1% of the 100,000 hospital staff working across 20 Swiss hospitals were infected with SARS-COV-2, according to a report published in the SonntagsZeitung. The worst affected hospitals were in Geneva (6.26%), Neuchâtel (3.18%), Valais (2.86%), Lausanne (2.75%), Fribourg (2.74%) and Jura (2.11%). Rates of infection in hospitals in German-speaking Switzerland were lower. Thurgau’s hospital recorded the lowest rate (0.36%). Higher...

© 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...

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. © Vladimir Fedorov | Dreamstime.comIn 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 more than tripled. Before the virus an average employee spent 10.5 hours working from home a week. During the lockdown, the...

Switzerland’s highest court recently decided that an employee asked to work at home can claim a part of their rent from their employer, according to the newspaper 20 Minutes. © Ronstik | Dreamstime.comAn employee of a financial firm in Zurich, who got into a disagreement with their employer over the reimbursement of some of their rent, took their case to the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court. The rental reimbursement related to the use of the employee’s home as an office....

40% of restaurants that have reopened in Switzerland fear they won’t survive, according to a recent industry survey by Gastro Suisse. © Rtdeleon04 | Dreamstime.comWhen Switzerland’s federal government allowed restaurants to reopen on 11 May 2020 around three quarters did. Many of those that didn’t, decided they wouldn’t be able to turn a profit operating with the required space and hygiene requirements. Those that did open report revenues on average 60% lower than over the same period...

Switzerland’s Federal Council plans to lift all travel restrictions and re-establish free movement of persons across the Schengen area no later than 6 July 2020 and possibly as early as mid June, it announced today. © Scaliger | Dreamstime.comIf the epidemiological evolution allows, restrictions on entering, working and living in Switzerland will be lifted for all Schengen states from mid-June and no later than 6 July, said the government. The Schengen area, which consists of 26...