[ad_1]
Travelers returning soon may only need to be quarantined for seven days. Photo: trapezoidal
Why the travel quarantine could now be reduced to seven days
The travel quarantine will be reduced to seven days. The obstacle was an ETH study. This is not going too far for the canton of Bern: it would abolish the quarantine entirely.
It’s funny to talk about easing in times of skyrocketing cases, but that’s exactly what is being done right now.
According to the Tages-Anzeiger, the federal government wants to reduce the quarantine rule for travel from ten to seven days. A test and release strategy is planned: anyone who does a PCR test on the sixth day of quarantine and receives a negative result can leave the apartment from the seventh day. Those affected would have to finance the test themselves.
ETH study sees better cost-benefit ratio
The obstacle was the federal Covid task force. He has commissioned a study that calculated the effort and benefits of quarantine to find the optimal combination. The result: the best cost-benefit ratio arises when people are tested after six days of quarantine and, if the result is negative, they are released from quarantine on the seventh day. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.
You can still travel here:
However, the three ETH researchers note that any reduction in the quarantine period increases the spread of the virus. The incubation period is still up to two weeks. The study found that a 10-day quarantine prevented 90 percent of all contact person infections. In a one-week quarantine with a test, it’s still 82 percent.
If you only look at the number of travelers from risky countries, the difference narrows. 73 percent of infections are prevented with a ten-day quarantine, 72 percent with seven days with a test.
Immense costs to the economy and society
The quarantine rule has been debated for some time. As the number of corona cases is increasing dramatically across Europe and Switzerland is also exceeding the limit of 60 daily infections per 100,000 inhabitants, economic circles in particular doubt the sense of quarantine. They complain that the large number of people in quarantine carries huge social and economic costs.
The health department of the canton of Bern also considers the current regulation superfluous: “From the point of view of the canton of Bern, the travel quarantine can be lifted,” said the spokesman for the director of health of Bern, Pierre Alain Schnegg (SVP ). This is because, from a cantonal point of view, the risk of infection abroad is now often lower than in Switzerland itself, so returning travelers simply need to be tested.
According to the ETH researchers, such a strategy would not even prevent a third of infections. Therefore, it proposes a flexible quarantine period, depending on the duration of the trip and the spread of the virus in the country of travel.
