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Pressure grows to relax COVID-19 measures in Switzerland

Pressure grows to relax COVID-19 measures in Switzerland

Swiss public is calling for a relaxation of the COVID-19 strict measures despite skyrocketing infection numbers. The Alpina nation copes well with the COVID-9, the hospitals and all-important ICUs across the country remain relatively stable, The Local Switzerland reports.

Over the two years of the pandemic, Switzerland has elaborated the working algorithm. In January 2022, Despite the rapid increase remains a cause for concern, the increase in COVID-19 cases has not been accompanied by a similar rise in hospitalisations and ICU admissions.

Switzerland left the grim milestone behind, and now, the Swiss experts believe the actual number of daily infections to be above 100,000 – with an estimated ten percent of the population getting infected over the previous week.

On Wednesday, the Alpine nation recorded 43,199 confirmed Covid cases. This is the first time the number of confirmed cases has crossed 40,000. According to the officials, the epidemiological situation in Switzerland’s hospitals remains steady.

This is largely due to the lower potency of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which represents 90 percent of new cases across Switzerland. Most notably, despite the spread of the new variant, only a handful of people have been admitted to hospital due to the Omicron variant. As a result, calls are growing for the remaining measures to be dropped in Switzerland.

Swiss hospitality groups Expo-Event and Gastrosuisse have called for the declaration of February 2nd as ‘Freedom Day’, whereby the existing measures are lifted.

The MPs called for a relaxation of the Covid certificate to again allow ‘3G’ rules, i.e. negatively tested people to again attend bars, restaurants and events. In addition, the lawmakers urged for the mask mandates and the e-certificate only to apply to people aged 25 and over.

According to the MPs, the changes should go even further, including the abolition of the country’s COVID task force. Member’s of Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party have also called for a relaxation, including the complete abolition of the coronavirus certificate.