Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

© Frankposz | Dreamstime.com On 11 September 2020, Switzerland’s federal government announced that people entering Switzerland after spending time in regions next to the country’s national borders will be exempted from mandatory quarantine requirements should those regions end up with high rates of infection. Cross-border worker are already exempted from quarantine requirements. The announcement marks a significant shift away from the current system which requires...

The town of Siviriez – source Wikipedia According to RTS, a branch of the HFR hospital in the Swiss canton of Fribourg has reached full capacity after a rise in Covid-19 patients following an outbreak in a local nursing home. The rise in hospital admissions follows an outbreak of Covid-19 in a nursing home in the region. Nine new patients have been admitted to the hospital since Wednesday. HFR Riaz, near the town of Bulle, is one of five HFR sites making up the...

© Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com On 7 September 2020, Switzerland added to its list of quarantine countries. People entering Switzerland from 55 nations must now quarantine for 10 days. On 7 September 2020, 10 nations were added to the list. These include Croatia, French Polynesia, Guyana, Lebanon, Libya, Paraguay, San Marino, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates. From 7 September 2020, anyone who has spent time in these countries over the 14 days prior...

On 27 September 2020, Swiss voters have many decisions to make. This time the list of votes includes decisions on fighter jets, hunting, tax deductions for child care and paternity leave. Probably the most important among them is a decision on whether to accept a proposal to end the EU agreement on the free movement of people between Switzerland and the bloc, known as the Limitation Initiative. © Miriam Doerr | Dreamstime.comThe agreement between Switzerland and the EU on the free...

A report published this week places Switzerland fourth on a list of countries best positioned to make an economic rebound after the coronavirus downturn. © Octavian Lazar | Dreamstime.comThe analysis looks at overall health resilience, pre-existing structural strengths and weaknesses in 122 countries. The top four nations are Finland, Norway, Germany and Switzerland. These countries combine world class governance with high levels of social capital and high social resilience. They also...

Recently published figures show rail passenger numbers dropped by more than a third during the first half of 2020. BEAT SCHWEIZER © SBB CFF FFSDuring this period an average of 810,000 passengers a day traveled on the network, a number more than a third less than during the first half of 2019 when there was 1.29 million. The number of passenger kilometres was also down 38.4%, said the company. Lower ticket revenues combined with a largely fixed cost base led to a loss of CHF 479 million...

© Tatiana Kozachenko | Dreamstime.com In Switzerland, over the three months following 31 May 2020, there have been 11,306 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 91 deaths, a case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.8%. However, up to this date there were 30,862 cases and 1,920 deaths, a CFR of 6.2%. Why has Switzerland’s CFR fallen so steeply? A number of factors could explain the decline. Testing The first is testing. Recorded case numbers before 1 June 2020 are not comparable to...

Citing the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, Switzerland’s Federal Council has decided to relax measures designed to curb the sale of the most polluting cars in Switzerland. © Malang Sheikh | Dreamstime.comIn July 2012, Switzerland introduced regulations on the CO2 emissions of new cars. The rules, which include average fleet emissions limits, apply to any vendor importing more than 49 vehicles into Switzerland. Any importer importing a fleet of 50 or more cars exceeding the...

With daily infection rates in France rising to levels not seen since its previous peak in April 2020, the Swiss government is considering modifying its quarantine risk list system to include certain French regions rather than the whole country. © Eq Roy | Dreamstime.comThe idea is being discussed as a potential way to avoid paralysing parts of Switzerland that rely on large daily flows of cross-border workers, the cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Basel-City in particular. Geneva and France...

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has ranked Switzerland number one in the world for innovation for the tenth consecutive year, according to its latest Global Innovation Index (GII) published this week. © Thomas Jurkowski | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland, Sweden, U.S., U.K and Netherlands lead the innovation ranking, which ranks more than 130 nations. The biggest change in Switzerland’s score this year related to its performance on patents. The GII shows year-on-year...