Corona Cantón BE overview – Votes in individual municipalities should be postponed – News story

• In Bern, Thun and Biel, life returned to the city centers on Monday.
• Rulers were also used in Biel schools.
• In compliance with the protection and hygiene requirements, visits to old people’s homes in the canton of Bern are allowed again from May 11.
• In the canton of Bern, there are currently 35 people with Covid’s disease 19 in the hospital, including 6 in an intensive care unit. 93 infected people have died. (As of May 12, 2020)

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Tuesday, May 12: No vote in Wattenwil: Wattenwil Township has to wait to vote on the purchase of the bear area. The governor of the Thun government has rejected a corresponding request for an urn vote. He didn’t think the presentation was urgent enough. During the crown pandemic, municipalities must have the canton approve votes or parliamentary sessions. It does so when a municipality has to conclude business that cannot be postponed and current hygiene and authorization rules can be observed.
Monday, May 11: New freedoms are used: People were happy to be able to visit a restaurant again, the journalist reports Monday afternoon from downtown Bern. The first guests can be seen eating in restaurants. People were slowly trying to get back to normal. This normality is far from being achieved in the alleys of Bern. As a visual inspection showed Monday, there were significantly fewer people on the road than before stores and restaurants closed. Compared to the past few weeks, the city was once again highly visited.

ORngeUsual start in schools: Distance education has come to an end: classes in the canton of Bern started again on Monday. Last week, teachers and school assistants have done their best to meet federal and cantonal requirements in the respective schools.

Bernese’s director of education recommended middle-class enrollment before classes resumed, so after weeks of distance learning at home, everyone had enough time to get used to daily school life and deal with the situation. extraordinary during the Corona pandemic.

It was the students’ turn on Monday. For example in a sixth grade in Biel. It was just a matter of getting used to the requirements. With the folding rule, the children learned what it means to stay two meters away. A completely new experience for many.

Staggered by lessons in Thun: Large school houses, such as the Thun Pestalozzi School House or the upper level of the Progymatte, allow students to go to classes in stages. Then there was no great accumulation. Separated by floors or classes, breaks were also spent at different locations on the school grounds.

Parents driving their children to school in their car were not seen in various school buildings in Thun, at least early in the morning, according to a correspondent for the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Everyday life is slowly coming back to Biel: Drink a coffee at the train station, buy clothes, try a perfume – also in Biel, people are happy with the little joys of everyday life that have been possible again since Monday. However, some people first had to get used to the fact that their pub looks a little different than before it closed. In general, only a few customers and employees wore a protective mask. Only a few people with a hygiene mask protected themselves around the train station.

Hustle and bustle in Thun: There was an unusually high standard of living in the city of Thun on a Monday morning. Many mothers were with their children. In front of a shoe store, three families were waiting for admission, because the offspring had already finally outgrown winter shoes.

Clothing stores were also able to register the first customers again. There were no large crowds anywhere, but it was clear to the people of Thun that the “Lädele” had been lost.

Sunday, May 9 – Announcements against demo participants: On Saturday, several hundred people demonstrated in Bern against the Crown measures of the Federal Council. Now the cantonal police report. “Several dozen people are shown; the exact number is not yet known,” police spokeswoman Jolanda Egger said.

The police do not yet have a complete overview because the operation took a long time. There is currently a ban on meetings. Therefore, the demonstration on Saturday was prohibited. “The task was very demanding because people were very insensitive,” said Jolanda Egger.

Saturday, May 9 – The participants of the demonstration gather in Bern despite the ban: Several hundred people protested against the measures related to the corona virus in Bern on Saturday. Police have gradually dissolved the demonstration.

Friday, May 8: 270 million Swiss francs for Bern hospitals: Due to the crown crisis, hospitals were unable to carry out many treatments, and hospital beds remained empty. The canton agreed from the beginning to assume the failures. The director of health, Pierre Alain Schnegg, has now specified these intentions: he expects the canton to support hospitals with around 270 million francs.

Relaxation in nursing home visits: Starting next Monday, institutions in the canton of Bern will be able to make visits to retirement homes and care again. The cantonal government writes that it is up to households to organize visits so that protection provisions can be observed.

The canton also recommends that all people with symptoms (respiratory disease, muscle pain, loss of smell and taste) undergo the Covid-19 test. The test center at the BEA Expo site in Bern is ready for a large number of tests.

To prevent future infections, the canton also relies on contact tracking. This means that contact persons are sought for sick and suspected cases and the necessary steps are organized (quarantine). According to the cantonal doctor Linda Nartey, a person who tested positive had an average of five to ten people in direct connection. Therefore, it is expected that 20 to 40 hours per person will be spent managing contacts.

The canton also attracts the population: People with health problems should go to the hospital or doctor’s office. A reluctance to fear the spread of the coronavirus or to overload health institutions is unfounded. The canton wants to draw attention to this issue with the “But sure” information campaign.

Starting May 11, gyms, sports fields, and athletic facilities can also be used in small groups of up to five people in compliance with Protection requirements, The link opens in a new window be used again

Public transport back at the usual rate: Trains, buses and trams in the canton of Bern will return to normal time on most lines starting Monday, May 11. The operation of night courses such as the “Moonliner” and the operation of purely tourist railways will continue to be discontinued. The Cantonal Transportation Directorate also says that booster courses for vocational schools, high schools and universities are not yet operational because these institutions have not yet started operations.

More distance and less excitement at Thun City Hall: The Thun city parliament met again on Thursday night for the first time since the start of the Corona crisis, in the unfamiliar environment of culture and the congress center. City councilors are further apart.

The greater distance between them affects emotions, says city councilman Jonas Baumann. The situation is unusual: dealing with microphones has something technical. The atmosphere is great, says city council president Daniela Huber Notter. She hopes that Cornona’s evasion of the convention center will soon come to an end and that one can return to the town hall.

The Thun city parliament approved the package of measures drawn up by the local council to support the economy during the Corona crisis. The core of the two million franc package is a solidarity fund. In addition, a deferral of rent, fees and tariffs to the city of Thun is also planned. All council members unanimously supported the proposal.

Thursday, May 7: critical questions about Bern schools: The Association of Teachers in the Canton of Bern has received 50 inquiries and reports in recent days, stating that no protective measures have been established related to the coronavirus.

Reports refer, for example, to mobile washing stations that are not yet ready, or disposable towels, says Stefan Wittwer of the “Education Bern” union. Another topic is the plexiglass panels that some teachers would like to have, but the communities do not want to pay.

Most of the situations could have been resolved after the discussions. Now there are still five troublesome cases, says Stefan Wittwer. “These are communities where, according to our information, we have to assume that the remaining days until Monday will no longer be enough to implement the protection measures.”

Daniel Arn, from the Association of Municipalities of Bern, on the other hand, is convinced that the municipalities are doing everything possible to implement the concept of protection. And if something is not perfect on Monday, you have the first two days in middle class to make adjustments. I have no reservations. But it is clear that everything is not yet perfect. We have to live with it.

Outdoor pool at the Bernese Jura remains: The Tramelan outdoor pool will be closed this summer. The reason for this is the cost and effort involved in containing the coronavirus. The community is one of the first in Switzerland to take such a step.

This decision was made “with a heavy heart,” knowing the disappointment and frustration it will cause to the more than 4,600 residents, he said in a message Thursday. The order is in line with the decisions of the Federal Council and the recommendations of the outdoor swimming pool associations of western Switzerland and Ticino.

Increase in the unemployment rate: At the end of April, 14,509 people were registered as unemployed in the canton of Bern, 1,860 more than in the previous month. The unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 2.5 percent. This was the first time that the crown crisis had a clear impact on unemployment.

In the hotel industry, the number of unemployed increased by 515 people, which corresponds to 14.4 percent. The number of unemployed also increased dramatically in the construction and retail / repair and automotive sectors. Unemployment increased further in the tourism-oriented administrative districts of the Oberland within the canton of Bern.