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A year ago, Switzerland was shaking with numbers that it would be happy about today. There were 962 new infections at the height of the first wave in April; There haven’t been so few in this country for months. On Wednesday, the BAG reported 1,343 new corona cases and 14 deaths.
How is Switzerland currently doing in an international comparison? BLICK explains five numbers on the development of the crown in Switzerland.
1. Switzerland has an average of almost 1.5 times more cases than Europe
As of Tuesday, there are 550,224 registered corona cases in Switzerland, about 64,204 per million inhabitants. Because so little was tested at first, the total number of cases is only interesting when compared.
It is striking: on the European average (around 44,519 cases per million inhabitants), Switzerland does poorly. We have 20,000 more cases. The entire continent is a long way from figures like those of China and Vietnam (25 and 24 cases per million, respectively).
2. New infections are more than a third below the cutoff.
The good news: Since the peak of the second wave in the fall, the number of cases has slowly but steadily declined. After peaks of more than 90 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day (7 days average), Switzerland currently only has around 11.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. For comparison: Germany has 9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day.
The European average is 18.5 cases. The sad leader with almost five times more cases: the Czech Republic. After two waves of highs on October 25 and January 10, the number of new infections is currently around 87 per 100,000 in an average of 7 days, and the trend is increasing. Germany closed the border with its neighboring country a few days ago due to the high number.
3. Switzerland ranks 20th among crown deaths
In the second wave, the Swiss healthcare system reached its limits. To date, a total of 9,226 people have died in Switzerland in connection with Covid-19.
Internationally, the 115 deaths per crown per 100,000 inhabitants mean 20th place out of 133 countries. The list is topped by Belgium (189), the Czech Republic (179.4) and Great Britain (178). The United States ranks seventh (151).
4. Only 10 countries vaccinate faster than Switzerland
In terms of progress in vaccination, Switzerland ranks 11th with around 8 doses administered per 100 inhabitants; So far, a total of 673,744 doses of vaccine have been injected in Switzerland. 2 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Germany is similar with about 6 doses (per 100 inhabitants) and 2.2 percent fully vaccinated.
The absolute leader in the international comparison is Israel with around 87 doses per 100 inhabitants and around 35.5 percent fully vaccinated. It is followed by the United Arab Emirates (around 56 cans / 100 inhabitants) and Great Britain with around 27 cans.
The UK has relied on risky emergency approvals in its vaccination strategy and is postponing second shots to allow more people to get their first dose sooner. All UK approved vaccines require two syringes. Currently only around 1 per cent of the UK population is fully vaccinated.
In Switzerland, unlike the EU and Great Britain, only the Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved so far. The Swiss regulatory authority Swissmedic postponed the start of AstraZeneca due to a lack of data.
5. As many tests as Germany
While crown tests were sparse at first, test structures have been extensively expanded for a long time. So far, around 484 tests per 1000 inhabitants have been carried out in Switzerland. In an international comparison, it ranks directly behind Belarus (508 per 1,000) and Germany (511).
The positivity rate published by the BAG with the new numbers of cases is particularly decisive; So the question of how many of the tests performed were positive. At peak times, the positivity rate was 27.4 percent (7-day average). As of Tuesday it was 5 percent, a slight increase compared to the previous days.
Last May, the World Health Organization recommended that the positivity rate should be 5 percent or less for at least 14 days.
In the future, self-tests, with which everyone can evaluate saliva samples themselves, could play a bigger role. While the EU is stepping on the accelerator, the approval and introduction in Switzerland is still unclear.
