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Federal experts are demanding an immediate and strict shutdown, as in March. A virologist from Geneva even goes one step further.
Stronger rules are needed: Task Force Chairman Martin Ackermann (left) listens to Patrick Mathys of the BAG at the legendary press conference in mid-December.
Photo: Peter Klaunzer (Keystone / December 15, 2020)
For the federal task force in the fight against coronavirus, the urgency for strict measures is increasing in view of the new, more contagious variant of the virus. An immediate expansion of cantonal testing and tracing capabilities is also necessary.
According to the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), the new variant of the virus with the designation VOC-202012/01 has already been detected in two samples from Switzerland. Great efforts are now being made to analyze whether the virus is already more widespread in Switzerland, the working group wrote in a statement on Friday.
Information from various health authorities indicated that VOC-202012/01 is spreading rapidly and is likely to be more contagious than other Sars-Cov-2 variants. However, there is currently no evidence that the new variant of the virus causes more serious illness than other variants. There is also no evidence that the virus variant is not covered by the immune response caused by vaccines. (Read our article on this: What is known about the mutated coronavirus).
New virus variant: new risk
Therefore, the new variant of the virus poses an additional risk for Switzerland, as its spread would make it more difficult to control the epidemic in Switzerland. In the UK, the mutation has already caused a sharp increase in the number of cases.
The working group had already communicated on December 15 that, from its point of view, strict measures are indicated at the national level. The emergence of the probably most contagious virus variant further increases this urgency, the task force now writes.
To prevent or slow the spread of the new virus variant in Switzerland, the working group believes that, in addition to measures to reduce contact, an immediate expansion of cantonal testing and tracing capabilities and constant implementation of the isolation and quarantine regulations. . Efforts to identify groups and sources of infection are particularly important in the current situation. (See.: The task force calls for drastic measures).
The above measures are still effective
All known measures would also work against the new variant of the virus, the working group continues. For transmissions, contacts are needed and something can be actively done against them together, that is, reducing the contacts as much as possible.
For weeks, Switzerland has been in a situation of epidemiological risk with a very high number of infections and deaths, a constant increase in several regions and a health system that is under extremely heavy pressure. The coming days and weeks would host additional risk factors: holidays and winter tourism with increased contacts and mobility and the possibility of further drops in temperature.
Geneva virologist calls for closure of Europe
Isabella Eckerle, a virologist from Geneva, goes one step beyond the task force. Write in a flash appeal on Twitter that more needs to be done to restrict contact. The coronavirus is always one step ahead of us and therefore it is a mistake for governments to wait for the mutation to be detected in their own country. Then it would be too late. In many places, hospitals are already on the attack and the mutated corona virus is probably already spreading outside Britain. If nothing is done, there will be a tragedy in January and February. Vaccination cannot be distributed quickly enough to compensate for the lack of new measures.
Eckerle is aware that no one would want to hear this now, but in view of the data on the mutation of the virus, he considers that a complete blockade for all of Europe is inevitable. She explicitly writes that this should not only be done in the EU, but across the continent.
The new data, to which Eckerle refers, shows in a pre-print study that the VOC 202012/01 variant is 56 percent more contagious than the one currently in circulation. Switzerland recently recorded 28,000 new infections in 7 days, so this number would rise to more than 43,000, with consequences for hospitals that are already running at their limits. Currently, the number of cases is stagnating at a high level; The aim of the tightening measures introduced before Christmas would be to halve the number of new infections every two weeks.
