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The Federal Council wants to adopt stricter measures in Switzerland to contain new corona infections on Wednesday. Experts already doubt the rule package is sufficient, including stricter mask requirements, restricting public gatherings to 50 people, restaurants to close at 10 p.m. and other measures. Will Switzerland not be able to avoid the issuance of night curfews and strict travel restrictions?
The “SonntagsZeitung” says Nicola Low, member of the federal scientific working group and epidemiologist at the University of Bern: “It is possible that the proposed measures are no longer sufficient.” In the current situation, every day counts and “with every day of waiting it becomes more difficult to stop the high number of infections”.
His working group colleague Christian Althaus, also an epidemiologist at the University of Bern, previously expressed the same concerns. The measures taken by the federal government and the cantons would lag behind the development of the spread of the infection. “It takes at least two weeks for a measure to be effective. What is this useless waiting? Althaus says.
Switzerland is not China, but …
But, what measures are left to the Federal Council or the cantons? How have other countries effectively fought the spread of the virus? China, which was the first scene affected by Covid-19, quickly set the course to control the new lung fever. A centralized system fought the epidemic. Applied to Swiss conditions, this would mean border closures, inter-cantonal travel restrictions, and strict local closures.
Applied to Swiss conditions, this would also have meant that the border with Italy would have been closed in spring. Politically, this decision would have been impossible to implement at that time. Have the general conditions changed in the meantime? Will Switzerland not be able to avoid having to take equally radical measures? In Switzerland there are still relatively flexible measures compared to other European countries.
The “speed of China’s reaction was the deciding factor,” said Gregory Poland, director of the vaccine research group at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA, the journal “The Lancet”, which specializes in diseases infectious. The Chinese “acted very quickly to stop the broadcast. Other countries, although they had much more time to prepare for the arrival of the virus, delayed their response and that meant they lost control. “
What if the number of new infections does not decrease?
The big question will be whether Switzerland can avoid night curfews and travel cuts, even if stricter measures don’t reduce the number of new infections. Bans are currently in effect in several cities and countries in Europe, including Rome, Paris and Belgium, and have previously been able to contain sources of infection at numerous hotspots.
Thailand, for example, managed to eliminate imported virus cases just after the pandemic began with a rigorous two-week night-out ban and severe travel restrictions. The sometimes tough restrictions, including a ban on the sale of alcohol, were relaxed step by step as the success of the measures became apparent.
Today you can move around Thailand with practically no worries. The strict entry measures continue and should be relaxed in the coming months. According to economists, despite massive declines, the Thai economy is improving with foreclosure than if the country had lost control of the virus crisis.
