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Certainly, the 44-year-old Zurich has never taken a more expensive ride: the man has to pay a 2000 franc fine and a 750 franc processing fee because he was away from home for three hours. And he had not adhered to the prescribed crown quarantine. Canton Zurich police detained the man, who should have stayed at home for 10 days after a trip to Serbia, during an inspection.
The case reported by the “Tages-Anzeiger” remains a rarity in Switzerland. But it also shows by way of example that the cantons are now stricter when it comes to quarantine controls than at the beginning of the pandemic. Around 20,000 people are currently in quarantine in Switzerland because they came from a risk country or had close contact with an infected person.
The canton of Zurich relies on police controls
When Zurich’s governing council called for a press conference on Corona last week, security director Mario Fehr brought with him a pile of numbers that were supposed to convey a message: We’re taking a closer look. The SP politician reported on thousands of checks of protection concepts in stores. And also from police operations to check if people are complying with the quarantine requirement. The canton of Zurich police have carried out 1,500 such checks since the beginning of August.
Other cantons are less open about the exact numbers. But a poll conducted by this newspaper shows: The police are being called now much more frequently than in May. At that time, only one canton, Basel-Stadt, stated that a police operation had already been carried out in connection with a quarantine check. Meanwhile, several cantons have announced that the police will be used to carry out controls if the situation requires it. The canton of Solothurn, for example, has developed a standardized process with the cantonal police. People suspected of ignoring the quarantine obligation are mainly checked. In addition, the Solothurn authorities also carry out on-the-spot checks. Population reports are being monitored “systematically and consistently”.
In general, crown federalism is also visible during quarantine control. No other canton controls as intensely as the people of Zurich. Geneva, for example, claims that the police have carried out an average of five checks per weekday since the beginning of August. In Vaud, another canton severely affected by the pandemic, there have been only 16 police operations so far.
Bern has zero reports, the canton Glaurs eleven
How many Swiss fared like the man from the canton of Zurich cannot be determined precisely. The truth, however, is that there have been complaints in several cantons because people did not comply with the quarantine obligation. That was the case for the first time in May, in the canton of Lucerne. Zurich now reports 14 notifications, Glarus and Solothurn eleven, Geneva two, and Basel-Stadt and Schaffhausen one. Others, like Zug, report “some” reports, Graubünden reports “individual” proceedings, while reports in Valais are “very rare”. Several cantons, including Zurich, emphasize that quarantine discipline is still good. So why the extensive checks? Because “consistent execution” is part of the strategy to combat Covid-19, it is said from Zurich.
While it is also advertised in smaller cantons like Glarus, this sometimes does not happen in larger ones. For example, Bern and St. Gallen, but also Freiburg and Basel, state that no one has yet been reported for ignoring the quarantine obligation. Others do not give information.
