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100 on Saturday, 200 on Sunday and 42 on Monday: the canton is responding to the numerous positive corona tests.
They have a lot to do: members of the contact follow-up team.
Photo: Urs Jaudas
Only once has the number of confirmed corona infections been higher than this Sunday. And that was on March 21, shortly after the shutdown began. At that time, the Zurich Health Directorate (GD) reported 208 confirmed cases, now there are 200.
The GD registered a total of 300 new corona cases over the weekend. This large number poses great challenges for the canton’s contact tracing team, as it is only designed for 100 new infections per day. However, according to a message from the GD, it was possible to reach all newly infected people over the weekend by SMS.
But the team is apparently reaching its limits. Therefore, the health department wants to increase it: “In order for contact tracing to process a growing number of cases, it will be further expanded.” A GD spokesperson cannot quantify how many people the team will grow by. The only thing that is clear is that more staff is needed and that they must be continuously trained and recruited. The canton’s contact tracing team currently consists of 250 people. 50 employees each work two shifts.
The number of positive tests doubled in the last week from 2.6 to 5 percent. The number of hospitalizations in the canton of Zurich is currently 31, which corresponds to a similar value to that of recent weeks.
