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COVID-19 RULES

EXPLAINED: Why does Switzerland want to end Covid restrictions?

Switzerland said Wednesday that the pandemic phase of Covid-19 could soon be over as it ditched some restrictions and mulled lifting all remaining curbs in mid-February.

Published: 2 February 2022 16:54 CET
Swiss president Ignazio Cassis deep in thought
Swiss president Ignazio Cassis said "today is a beautiful day" when announcing an end to Covid restrictions. Photo: ALEX BRANDON / POOL / AFP

The government dropped its work-from-home order and scrapped the quarantine requirement for Covid contacts, despite case numbers soaring.

READ MORE: Switzerland announces plans to relax all Covid measures

“There are increasing signs that the acute crisis will soon be over and the endemic phase could begin,” it said in a statement.

“The moment has come to once again ease measures designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

The upbeat tone came despite Switzerland seeing sustained record infection numbers.

More than 40,000 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours, while nearly 2.3 million positive tests have been recorded overall in the wealthy Alpine nation of 8.6 million people.

But the government stressed that hospitals were not over-burdened, likely due to broad immunity through vaccinations and natural infections.

Travel: Switzerland proposes end to Covid entry rules

The government therefore downgraded the work-from-home order to a recommendation, although masks remain mandatory in the workplace.

It also decided to drop quarantine requirements for contacts of Covid cases, though people who test positive for the disease still need to isolate.

Bern said it was considering lifting all remaining restrictions — as Copenhagen did on Tuesday — with a decision expected on February 16.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday it was premature to declare victory over Covid or surrender to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The Swiss are considering dropping all remaining measures in one go on February 17.

The government acknowledged this posed an “epidemiological risk”, and said it can only be done if the current fifth wave of infections starts to decline.

The move would mean no more Covid passes to enter restaurants, events and cultural venues, and the end of mandatory masks on public transport, in shops and indoor public settings.

But if all the restrictions are not dropped at once, they will be in two stages, with the Covid pass and limits on private gatherings the first to go.

“Of course the pandemic is not over but we see light on the horizon,” President Ignazio Cassis told a press conference.

“The end of the crisis does not mean the end of the virus… We must learn to live with it.”

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COVID-19 ALERT

Covid-19: European summer holidays threatened by rise of subvariants

A resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Europe, this time driven by new, fast-spreading Omicron subvariants, is once again threatening to disrupt people's summer plans.

Published: 22 June 2022 16:08 CEST
Covid-19: European summer holidays threatened by rise of subvariants

Several Western European nations have recently recorded their highest daily case numbers in months, due in part to Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.

The increase in cases has spurred calls for increased vigilance across a continent that has relaxed most if not all coronavirus restrictions.

The first resurgence came in May in Portugal, where BA.5 propelled a wave that hit almost 30,000 cases a day at the beginning of June. That wave has since started to subside, however.

READ ALSO: KEY POINTS: German Health Ministry lays out autumn Covid plan

Italy recorded more than 62,700 cases on Tuesday, nearly doubling the number from the previous week, the health ministry said. 

Germany meanwhile reported more than 122,000 cases on Tuesday. 

France recorded over 95,000 cases on Tuesday, its highest daily number since late April, representing a 45-percent increase in just a week.

Austria this Wednesday recorded more than 10,000 for the first time since April.

READ ALSO: Italy’s transport mask rule extended to September as Covid rate rises

Cases have also surged in Britain, where there has been a seven-fold increase in Omicron reinfection, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS blamed the rise on the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, but also said Covid fell to the sixth most common cause of death in May, accounting for 3.3 percent of all deaths in England and Wales.

BA.5 ‘taking over’

Mircea Sofonea, an epidemiologist at the University of Montpellier, said Covid’s European summer wave could be explained by two factors.

READ ALSO: 11,000 new cases: Will Austria reintroduce restrictions as infection numbers rise?

One is declining immunity, because “the protection conferred by an infection or a vaccine dose decreases in time,” he told AFP.

The other came down to the new subvariants BA.4 and particularly BA.5, which are spreading more quickly because they appear to be both more contagious and better able to escape immunity.

Olivier Schwartz, head of the virus and immunity unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said BA.5 was “taking over” because it is 10 percent more contagious than BA.2.

“We are faced with a continuous evolution of the virus, which encounters people who already have antibodies — because they have been previously infected or vaccinated — and then must find a selective advantage to be able to sneak in,” he said.

READ ALSO: Tourists: What to do if you test positive for Covid in France

But are the new subvariants more severe?

“Based on limited data, there is no evidence of BA.4 and BA.5 being associated with increased infection severity compared to the circulating variants BA.1 and BA.2,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said last week.

But rising cases can result in increasing hospitalisations and deaths, the ECDC warned.

Could masks be making a comeback over summer? (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

Alain Fischer, who coordinates France’s pandemic vaccine strategy, warned that the country’s hospitalisations had begun to rise, which would likely lead to more intensive care admissions and eventually more deaths.

However, in Germany, virologist Klaus Stohr told the ZDF channel that “nothing dramatic will happen in the intensive care units in hospitals”.

Return of the mask? 

The ECDC called on European countries to “remain vigilant” by maintaining testing and surveillance systems.

“It is expected that additional booster doses will be needed for those groups most at risk of severe disease, in anticipation of future waves,” it added.

Faced with rising cases, last week Italy’s government chose to extend a requirement to wear medical grade FFP2 masks on public transport until September 30.

“I want to continue to recommend protecting yourself by getting a second booster shot,” said Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza, who recently tested positive for Covid.

READ ALSO: Spain to offer fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose to ‘entire population’

Fischer said France had “clearly insufficient vaccination rates” and that a second booster shot was needed.

Germany’s government is waiting on expert advice on June 30 to decide whether to reimpose mandatory mask-wearing rules indoors.

The chairman of the World Medical Association, German doctor Frank Ulrich Montgomery, has recommended a “toolbox” against the Covid wave that includes mask-wearing, vaccination and limiting the number of contacts.

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