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Half of the cantons are now classified as risk areas, at least if one considers the standard by which Switzerland declares other countries and regions abroad to be risk areas.
If a country exceeds 60 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, this is a risk area from Switzerland’s point of view. In this country, 13 cantons currently exceed this threshold for new infections.
Unlike returning from a risk country, you do not need to go into quarantine after visiting a severely affected canton. However, the Conference of Health Directors (GDK) recommends that problem cantons tighten their crown regime and, in particular, extend the requirement for masks to stores and publicly accessible interiors.
Ten cantons with mandatory mask
Do you wear the mask when buying? This already applies in the problem cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Friborg, Zurich, Valais and Jura. This morning, Zug also announced the expansion of the mask requirement. And customers in Solothurn and Basel-Stadt must also wear a mask, although these cantons have fewer than 60 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
But not all cantons adhere to the GDK recommendations. In Schwyz, Nidwalden and the two Appenzells, there are no mask requirements in stores yet. When questioned by BLICK, the Ausserrhoden authorities wrote that no action would be taken until the second half of October.
You hide behind the bunches
And masks aren’t a problem in Nidwalden, either. It is true that “the incidence value recommended by the GDK was exceeded for the first time in the canton of Nidwalden,” the authorities write.
However, a large part of the new infections in Nidwalden can be traced to “two groups in rapid succession at privately organized events.” The authorities hope that the situation will calm down now. Affected people are isolated.
Bern before the introduction of the mask requirement
Bern has also been hit hard by the pandemic. Today the canton has 84 new infections. The number of cases was only higher in five days during the spring close.
Health director Pierre Alain Schnegg (57) had already announced in August that the government would expand the mask requirement as soon as it accounts for 47 infections per 100,000 people. So far nothing has happened.
But that could change today. Health Director Schnegg will report on the latest crown decisions of the Bern government at 2pm
Federal Council in Corona blind flight?
The situation is not only uncomfortable for the cantons, the Federal Council is also under increasing pressure. On Wednesday, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) informed Federal Councilor Alain Berset (48, SP) 1080 new infections within 24 hours; the numbers were so high in early April. And the positivity rate, which indicates how many of the tests are positive, is high, 7.1 percent.
Critics such as the National LPG Councilor Martin Bäumle (56, ZH) complain that the Federal Council is in the “blind flight of the crown”. On Twitter he sarcastically asks what Switzerland is doing now: “Do I hope that Covid-19 will go away on its own?” The parliamentarian has already presented a proposal in parliament in which he wants to know the bases on which the Federal Council determines its crown strategy.
And epidemiologists such as Matthias Egger (63) also emphasize how important it is for the federal government to maintain an overview: “The BAG must now quickly get an overview of where people are infected.”
