Against the recommendations of the federal government – trade association wants to lift corona measures immediately – News

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  • The Federal Council should immediately lift the most drastic measures against corona because there are fewer and fewer corona patients in the intensive care units of the hospitals.
  • This is what representatives of Swiss industry and the bourgeois parties are demanding. The Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) and the national Science Taskforce don’t want to know anything about it.

Many businesses in the catering, hotel and events sectors, as well as numerous fitness centers, have suffered enormously from the Federal Council’s corona measures, says Hans-Ulrich Bigler, Director of the Swiss Trade Association (sgv). “Everywhere there, companies are at risk, some have gone bankrupt. You have massive sales losses because economic freedom has been abolished. »

Legend:

Hans-Ulrich Bigler speaks at the media conference of his association and other representatives of business and civil parties about the abolition of the measures.

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Bigler, supported by two national councilors from the SVP and the Mitte party and a national councilor from FDP. “We call on the Federal Council to lift the unnecessary corona measures on February 2nd.”

Against home office, isolation and quarantine

By this Bigler means: “Repeal of the home office obligation, repeal of the obligation to isolate and quarantine, restoration of the constitutionally guaranteed basic rights for citizens and the economy.” Casimir Platzer, President of the Gastrosuisse association, demands that the obligation to obtain a certificate must also be removed quickly, since more and more people who have been vaccinated and even those who have been boosted are becoming infected with Omikron.

Assessment by Katrin Zöfel from the SRF science editorial team


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One can get the impression from the number of infections that slowing down the contagion is of no use anyway. And there is also a lot of talk about the fact that everyone gets infected with omicron anyway. The latter is also very likely true, but the crucial point still remains: how quickly and how many people become infected? This determines how violently this wave affects.

And in a situation in which the number of cases is already very high and, according to the BAG and Taskforce, is still increasing, relaxing the corona measures would mean heating up this situation again.

At the same time, it is clear that hospital admissions and the number of cases are now more decoupled than in any other wave. That’s good news. And yet it’s still too early to relax completely.
There are three reasons for this, all of which relate to the situation in the hospitals.

  1. The hospital numbers are reported to the BAG with a delay. This means that they do not reflect the real situation or do so with a delay.
  2. It takes a certain amount of time in each wave for the increasing number of infections to be reflected in the hospitals, and the current wave has not yet reached its peak. A possible peak in the hospital load is therefore only to come.
  3. So far, mainly people under 60 have been infected with omicron. Older people, who are more prone to severe courses, have been less affected so far. So it will become clear in the next few days and weeks: How much will people over 60 follow suit and how well are they protected by the booster?

It is very likely that further new variants will come after Omikron. Then the question arises: Do those who are already immune become infected again? Does the variant make you sick more or less? Is she more contagious? In short, how dangerous are the new variants?

On the plus side, however, immune protection is building up in the population at the same time. As has been learned, this requires several encounters with the vaccination or the virus itself. But then the protection really does become more robust and broader. This certainly reduces the risk that new variants can pose.

“Because you know that the certificate no longer fulfills its original purpose,” says Platzer. “It’s useless. It’s disproportionate. It doesn’t slow down infection. That’s why we’re asking for it to be lifted immediately.”

But Urs Karrer, Vice President of the National Science Taskforce, clearly rejects this. The peak of the wave has not yet been reached, he says. “We will only cause unnecessary additional damage if we throw everything overboard now and let the virus run free.”

Exploding number of cases because all measures would be lifted: This is really not what Switzerland should afford to Omikron in the last few meters, says Patrick Mathys from the BAG. “It takes a little more patience. We are two years into the pandemic. It would be a pity to gamble away the situation we have created and in which we are now for two or three weeks. That does not make sense. Not just epidemiological, I think.”

The BAG and the task force will therefore not recommend that the Federal Council immediately drop the strictest measures when it is discussing possible easing on Wednesday next week.

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