Tag Archives: SARS-CoV-2 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....

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,...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the last 48 hours, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported a further 227 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,654 since summer and 3,385 since the beginning of the year. Total Covid-19 deaths in Switzerland since the beginning of the pandemic have now reached 3,696 of which 3,385 were laboratory confirmed infections. Hospitalisations The are currently 543 Covid-19...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the last 72 hours, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 198 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,427 since summer and 3,158 since the beginning of the year. Total Covid-19 deaths in Switzerland since the beginning of the pandemic have now reached 3,496 of which 3,158 were laboratory confirmed infections. Hospitalisations At 4,000, the number of hospitalised...

© Alessandro Melis | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s federal government has increased the amount of money earmarked for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines by CHF 100 million, bringing the total to CHF 400 million. The announcement came as preliminary trials of a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech found it to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Switzerland had already set aside money to buy 4.5 million...