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The crown’s numbers are exploding and Switzerland is once again facing a partial national shutdown. The Federal Council will decide before Wednesday whether to toughen measures to contain the virus again, throughout Switzerland!
The country is still a patchwork quilt. The cantons of French-speaking Switzerland, Bern and the two Basles have already drastically restricted social life, banned major events, introduced a curfew, and closed museums, cinemas and swimming pools.
Eastern and central Switzerland, particularly Zurich, are completely different: the government of the country’s most populous canton is still waiting, despite up to 900 new corona cases a day. Concerts and sporting events with more than 1000 spectators are still allowed. Zurich security director Mario Fehr (SP) said on Friday to stay calm, rather than fall into the hustle and bustle, “which comes more and more from federal Bern.”
The Federal Council is pushing behind the scenes. To avoid overcrowding in intensive care units and a total closure, it proposes a powerful package of measures to the cantons in a consultation process: mandatory mask in the open air, curfew nationwide starting at 10 pm and a maximum limit of 50 people in events, except in demonstrations, parliamentary sessions and community assemblies.
The cantons have until Monday morning to comment. The government plans to announce its decision on Wednesday. Even if individual sports organizers and recreational facility operators are already in a storm, given looming bottlenecks at hospitals, most of the restrictions proposed by the Federal Council are likely to be unavoidable.
Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga (SP) spoke clearly yesterday: “The Federal Council will have to decide on new measures.”
Specifically: Switzerland should be back in partial closure before the end of the week. Ghost games in all sports stadiums, closed discos, distance education in schools from the secondary level. Or as Lukas Engelberger, a Basel government adviser and chairman of the cantonal health directors put it: a “slowdown”.
Political resistance likely only exists against the requirement to wear masks outdoors as proposed by the Federal Council. “Every person has to wear a mask in the public space of the settlement areas,” says the draft that BLICK released on Friday night. Even the crown federal task force didn’t go that far in its recommendations on Friday.
