Employees in health and care facilities who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus must be tested regularly. The canton of Bern made this urgent recommendation on Friday.
Because the vaccination quota for health workers is still low, the cantonal health department now expects hospitals, clinics and homes to have symptom-free, non-immune employees tested for the coronavirus every five to seven days. The same also applies to external employees of the health facilities, as can be seen from a communication from the Bernese Health Directorate under Pierre Alain Schnegg (SVP).
Delta is the trigger
The canton insists on the tests because the delta variant of the corona virus, which is now dominant in Switzerland, is significantly more contagious than its predecessor. The aim is to create zones that are as free of Covid-19 as possible in health and care facilities. The efforts made in recent months to protect the vulnerable population should now “not be undone,” writes the health department.
The canton of Bern is thus supporting a proposal by Health Minister Alain Berset (49). Another suggestion by Berset, namely the requirement for a certificate for visitors to health care facilities, was received by the cantons, in some cases controversial. Bern now wants to tackle this too.
Entry systems for visitors
In its announcement, the Bernese Health Directorate speaks of a “safe admission management for visitors” that the facilities should implement. The canton wants to allow the institutions to implement the implementation relatively freely, said Gundekar Giebel, spokesman for the health department, at the request of the SDA news agency.
In smaller facilities, the conditions are different than in large ones, where, for example, visitor zones can be set up without any problems. According to Giebel, the canton expects the health and care facilities to comply with these urgent requirements with immediate effect. (SDA)