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The former head of the Corona task force, Matthias Egger (63), warns about the Dutch scenario due to the high numbers of Corona currently. The Netherlands suddenly saw a sharp increase in the number of cases after a longer stable phase. Are we on the verge of a similar tipping point? Egger believes it is possible.
The epidemiologist is not only concerned about the high number of infections that the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) had to announce this Tuesday: the BAG registered 700 new infections in 24 hours. The number of cases was very high in early April.
The positivity rate, which indicates the proportion of tests that have tested positive, has also reached a record high since the first wave dropped by almost 10 percent.
“Indoor mask requirement”
The numbers are increasing in practically all cantons. To avoid a Dutch scenario, urgent measures are now needed, Egger demands. “In my opinion, mandatory masks in public interiors would now make sense in all cantons,” he says.
If the epidemiologist has his way, store customers across Switzerland will have to wear protective masks in the future. And a mask is also displayed in the workplace as soon as distance cannot be maintained, Egger says. Or in the elevator.
In Zurich, masks are already mandatory in public interiors. In many places you don’t want to go that far. The Bern government is discussing this week introducing a mask requirement in stores. The canton currently has 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. That corresponds exactly to the limit with which the federal government defines risk areas abroad.
Berset talks about clusters
Health Minister Alain Berset (48, SP) was more cautious during a visit to the canton of Zug. “The growing number of cases mainly affects metropolitan areas,” Berset emphasized, referring to Zurich, for example.
On the one hand, the Federal Council of SP attributes the high number of cases to more important individual sources of infection, the so-called clusters. On the other hand, a “general upward trend” can be observed.
The detective work of the contact tracker is even more important, says epidemiologist and task force member Marcel Tanner (68): “We have to know where infections take place in order to specifically break the chain of infection.”
Older people are increasingly affected again
Experts are also concerned that there is a tendency for older people to get sick again. “This is now beginning to be reflected in the increasing number of hospitalizations,” explains Tanner.
Older people are more dependent on hospital treatment and are at higher risk of not surviving the coronavirus.
What role does winter play?
And what influence does the drop in temperatures have in Corona? Here, too, Berset is more confident than the experts: If it were really active, especially at lower temperatures, “there would be regions in the world where the virus would not have spread,” says Berset. However, that was not the case. “So I suspect that the increase is not solely due to the cold.”
Egger, a member of the task force, sees it differently. The cold snap could well be one reason for the growing number of cases: “People were more often indoors again and distances have not always been maintained.”
