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Despite the rapid increase in cases, unions, the travel industry and politicians are calling for Corona’s strategy to be adjusted.
In stores like this in the canton of Zurich, masks are mandatory. The trade association now opposes the measure.
Photo: Andrea Zahler
A crown trench opens: On the one hand, the number of cases in cantons such as Vaud, Freiburg and Zurich has reached a threatening level. Why cantonal health directors are concerned and want to expand the requirement for masks.
On the other hand, several major acts now requiremeyoure rethink the current Corona strategy. The demands range from the abolition of the mask requirement in stores to the approval of rapid tests and the shortened quarantine. This creates a broad front that the federal government and the cantons can hardly ignore.
Trade associationreDirector Hans-Ulrich Bigler is quick to send a letter to the cantonal health directors. In it, he points to the requirement for masks in stores, which is now applied in many cantons: it is incomprehensible that “individual cantons have made the wearing of masks mandatory in SME stores, such as bakeries or in the hospitality industry. “, although” the necessary distance – and hygiene regulations can already be met by strict protection concepts, “writes Bigler. This increases the virulent uncertainty of the population.
Especially in border areas, where on the one hand the mask is compulsory and on the other it is not, a considerable number of customers are expelled from Swiss stores. This workst According to Bigler, SMEs with a mask requirement greatly affect the course of business for already battered companies.
Everybody wants rapid tests, the federal government opposes
Union representatives also questioned the requirement for masks in stores. “Proportionality is important,” says Pierre-Yves Maillard, president of the Federation of Trade Unions. He points out that even where the mandatory part is widespread, the number of infections remains high.
Adrian Wüthrich, president of the trade union TravailsUisse, for its part, is bothered by the cantons’ approach: “Sectors and social partners have developed protection concepts for reopening after closure. Now the cantons are simply ignoring it. ”
Even with the long quarantineFThe need for businessmen, politicians and trade unionists to act is growing. In Switzerland, people who have had contact with an infected person must ten Days in quarantine. In his letter, Bigler calls on the federal government and cantons to offer crown self-tests and mass rapid tests. The approaching fall will create a situation where a large number of viruses will spread at the same time as Corona. “For the entire economy, but especially for SMEs, it is unthinkable that employees would be quarantined for symptoms that can be mistaken for Covid-19.” But: a clear distinction between Corona and other viruses is only possiblehpossible with the help of tests.
Roche will be ready in the next few days
CVP’s national councilor, Martín Candinas, has similar concerns and has therefore submitted an interpellation. In it he asks for “practical and simple solutions” – In other words, quick tests in favor of a shortened quarantine. «Especially for the hospitality industry, tourism and any hometheffice is not an option, this means a de facto professional ban. “Candinas therefore wants to know from the Federal Council what it is doing to ensure that the Covid-19 test results are available the same day or the next morning at more delay so that symptom-free employees can return to work immediately if the test result is negative.
In other countries, rapid tests have long been used to shorten or even avoid quarantine. And Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is working flat out on its own rapid test. “It will be available in the next few days,” says spokesman Nicolas Dunant. The test detects the virus, works in a similar way to a pregnancy test and, without a laboratory infrastructure, delivers the result after a quarter of an hour.
But the Federal Office of Public Health and the Corona Scientific Task Force are still blocking rapid tests today. The member of the task force and epidemiologist Marcel Tanner admits that there are already numerous rapid tests, but some of them “are not yet certified or sufficiently validated.” It should also be checked whether they are practical. According to Tanner, it will take several weeks before a sufficiently validated rapid test is available.
Aviation wants test centers at airports
Tourism organizations are also putting pressure on them. Nicolo Paganini, President of the Swiss Tourism Association, is convinced that tests and possibly rapid tests would make things easier for many companies. Other states allowed corona tests to shorten the quarantine, giving travelers more security in planning. “And that is vital for Swiss tourism, as well as for the travel industry.”
Unions have also recognized the needs of the travel industry. The current quarantine is for Pierre-Yves Maillardregel a problem. Pay cuts and job cuts threaten, he says. “To prevent this, we need new solutions in this area.”
The Federal Council has also received mail from Aerosuisse, the Swiss aviation coordinating organization. This requires: «Covid-19–TestwithParticipants must settle in national airports for departing and arriving passengers. ”The recognition of a negative result should lead to the reduction or even lifting of the quarantine obligation.
Aerosuisse President Thomas Hurter talks about “The biggest crisis in the 100-year history of air traffic.” After a “successful restart” in the summer, the number of reserves collapsed again due to inconsistent measures taken to contain the epidemic. “Very short-term adjustments, for example in the list of risk countries, have massive effects on the booking behavior of passengers,” says the SVP National Council.
