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If cases spike in the coming weeks, stricter crown measures might be necessary, says Switzerland’s top health politician Lukas Engelberger in an interview.
School closings as ‘ultima ratio’: Lukas Engelberger, chairman of cantonal health directors and federal councilor Alain Berset on his way to a press conference in Bern.
Photo: Anthony Anex (Keystone)
After the holidays, the president of the Cantonal Conference of Health Directors (GDK) is not very optimistic about the future in terms of the effectiveness of the current Corona measures. If the numbers rise again, school closings would be a problem, says Lukas Engelberger.
The numbers of the last days “make us remain cautious,” he said Sunday night on the “Tagesschau” of Swiss television SRF.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, you were more likely to see representative numbers: once there were more than 5,000, once more than 4,000 new infections, Engelberger said. “Stronger measures cannot be avoided if we go back to having high numbers with an uptrend in the coming weeks,” he said.
Little room for maneuver next to schools
However, when it comes to restrictions, there aren’t many options left – except schools, for example. “So far, attempts have been made to protect school and work as much as possible,” Engelberger said. Now the room for maneuver has been exhausted.
If it is necessary to further reduce contacts and slow down working life, measures should also be taken in the workplace and “at most in schools”.
“The school sets the pace”
Engelberger justified the possible measures in the schools with the fact that they were “pioneers in everyday life.” If the school has distance learning functions and students don’t move around, contacts would be reduced, also because parents would stay home more, Engelberger explained. But it is the “last resort”, the last possible means.
On December 30, the Federal Council refrained from taking further action. Now he will probably report back on the situation and measures on Wednesday. On December 18, the government tightened measures in the fight against the corona virus: they are expected to apply until January 22.
