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The vaccine is there, but vaccination is slow in Switzerland. Who to blame The cantons point to the federal government or the lack of vaccination doses. Research by “NZZ am Sonntag” now shows that some cantons have not even brought the few doses available to the population.
Those who live in Basel-Stadt can consider themselves lucky. The small canton has already carried out almost 6,000 vaccinations against Covid-19, in the large canton of Bern it was significantly lower until Saturday with 4,400.
66,000 doses were administered in Switzerland, as Nora Kronig, deputy director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), told a news conference Thursday. This means that only 15 percent of the available serum was used. The federal government received 433,000 cans from Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna. The next delivery will arrive on Monday, so half a million cans will be ready by the end of the month.
Praise of Bern for Ticino
Vaud and Valais in particular, but also Baselland, are lagging behind with the vaccination campaign. The three cantons have only injected a quarter of the vaccine. Things are looking a bit better in Aargau and Zurich. That was the result of a poll conducted by “NZZ am Sonntag”. The canton of Zurich plans to use half of the serum available by the end of the month.
The FOPH is watching the development with increasing nervousness. “In some cantons we have extraordinary results, for example in Ticino,” says Kronig, who is responsible for the vaccination campaign at the federal level. Ticino has consumed more than 80 percent of the cans, and the situation is similar in Graubünden, Obwalden and Neuchâtel.
New assessment of the situation at the end of next week
Because the pace is so different, those responsible at the federal level should consider changing the distribution key. Until now, the BAG assigned the vaccine based on the number of high-risk patients. The new idea: if a canton has inoculated less than half of the serum, it no longer receives anything. If you’ve used up the cans quickly, you should get more. Two sources close to the Federal Council explain this to the “NZZ am Sonntag” independently of each other.
These are apparently just deliberations. The federal government wants to monitor the situation by the end of next week. Perhaps the difficulties are just beginning. If the backlog cannot be made up, FOPH will step in, says a well-informed person.
Extraordinary meeting with Berset and the health directors
Some resentment can be felt in Bern. With criticism of the purchasing policy, the cantons wanted to distract themselves from the fact that they themselves had not managed to install vaccination centers on time. Therefore, the different rhythm was also the subject of an extraordinary meeting of the Minister of Health, Alain Berset, and the cantonal health directors on Saturday.
While Basel-Stadt vaccinated the first residents in late December, Bern and Zurich will not send mobile teams until next week, writes the “NZZ am Sonntag” in. The people of Vaud also have to be patient. According to a spokeswoman for the health department, 20,000 vulnerable people will only be vaccinated in March. According to the plan, the group should be vaccinated by the end of February.
Lack of vaccination personnel
At the moment, not all cantons have returned with vaccines, says Lukas Engelberger, president of the newspaper’s cantonal health directors conference. In some places there is a lack of personnel and infrastructure. The canton of Bern has not yet been able to open all the planned vaccination centers and Zurich is still looking for operators. Market approvals and first deliveries came faster than expected, according to Engelberger.
Engelberger estimates that some cantons have probably prepared to start vaccinations only towards the end of January. However, the population hopes that they will be vaccinated as soon as the serum is available.
