Covid, Switzerland, stops trains to Italy and tightens the rules against contagion – Corriere.it

Switzerland is forced to further toughen anti-Covid measures in the face of a contagion rate that does not recede. The further tightening refers in particular to the canton of Ticino, a region on the border with Italy where the epidemiological curve remains a cause for concern, which brought forward the curfew in public places by a few hours. To this is added another form of confinement as a result of Covid: the Swiss Federal Railways have announced that starting Thursday a series of trains bound for Italy will stop at the border, not being able to enforce some anti-pollution regulations required by the Italian authorities contained in the ‘last Dpcm. With possible serious repercussions on the movement of commuter workers along the border between Lombardy and Ticino.

Ticino under pressure

The Minister of Health, Alan Berset, faced with epidemiological data that continue to be worrisome and after the controversies raised by the gatherings in some ski resorts, for example in Verbier, urged this Monday to repress the fight against Covid. Not uniformly throughout the national territory, but in individual regions where the virus continues to bite. Among them is the Canton of Ticino: yesterday 116 cases and 9 deaths were registered in the border area (out of a population of just over 300,000 inhabitants). Another data is more significant: in Ticino the positive rate of tampons is still very high, 22% compared to 16.3 in Switzerland as a whole (in Italy it ranges between 11 and 12).

Bars and restaurants anticipate closure

Given the pressure coming from Bern, the “governor” of Ticino Norman Gobbi yesterday announced the new measures that will be activated in the territory of his competence (where the blockade, until now, has been quite light): the bars will lower the blind at 7pm, restaurants at 10. The same goes for casinos, bingo halls, nightclubs and whorehouses in red. The Ticino health authorities still register an Rt higher than 1 and the cases tend to increase. “The situation is not satisfactory, there is pressure on the sanitary facilities”, concluded Norman Gobbi.

The railway blockade

On the horizon (a horizon of 24 hours no more) looms another mess: the dreaded train stop. The Swiss Federal Railways have reported that as of Thursday, December 10, all convoys will be stopped at the Italian border due to the inability (by employees) to enforce some rules required by the Italian authorities, for example the measurement of fever for all passengers or the fact that, as of December 10, those arriving from Switzerland will be asked for a negative swab. A clarification is expected on the day of the Swiss company, but the railway blockade hangs in these hours in the head of the Eurocity to Milan from Basel, Bern and Zurich but especially in the very popular commuter trains to Como and Varese. In theory, cross-border workers should, when they arrive at the border, get off the train and board a Swiss train on the other side of the border and vice versa on their return.