[ad_1]
Now it’s serious. The coronavirus is spreading in Switzerland with incredible speed. The number of cases has doubled in a week. The Federal Office of Public Health reported 5,596 new infections on Wednesday, in addition to 115 hospital admissions and eleven new deaths. “The situation is worrying and is rapidly getting worse,” Health Minister Alain Berset (48) told the Bundeshaus media on Wednesday. And he made it clear: “We have to react.”
The Federal Council had already decreed new measures, such as a general mask requirement on Sunday. It is now lobbying the cantons and giving them a one-week grace period to take more effective action across the board. Some have already reacted, others are likely to follow.
Berset defines three areas of action
“If the measures do not work, we will adopt stricter measures on Wednesday,” Berset said. For this, the Federal Council has defined three areas of action in which it wants to tighten the reins if necessary: in public access rooms, events and meetings.
The Federal Council has yet to discuss specific measures, the administration says. What Berset will give to the cantons for consultation in the coming days is still open. But the field is wide. It is conceivable, for example, that the limit of 15 people in meetings is further lowered and limits for cultural, sporting and other events tightened. Or that clubs have to close at least partially. The goal is to avoid closures throughout the area.
Berset also made this clear to the media: the SP magistrate wants to avoid a temporary mini-blockade of, for example, two weeks. “The next two or three weeks are crucial for us,” says Berset. “We can only fight the virus together.”
Travail Suisse wants protection concepts in companies
On Thursday, Economy Minister Senior Vice President Guy Parmelin (60) invited business associations, unions and cantons to another business summit. For certain industries, old problems return with new restrictions. Unions insist that the short-time and job substitution regime be extended again, for example for temporary employees.
The umbrella organization Travail Suisse is also bringing a new demand to the table: “We demand that all companies have to present a concept of crown protection for their operations and that these are also monitored more closely by the authorities”, says the president of the association and former national councilor of the SP, Adrian Wüthrich (40). “Businesses must take the protection of their employees even more seriously.”
