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The measures have been lifted – everything good, then? Not necessarily: Nobody knows how the corona virus will develop.
Why is? Despite the lifting of almost all corona measures, the virus is of course still present in Switzerland – around 20,000 people have still tested positive in the last few days, albeit with a downward trend. But in the near future the number of tests is likely to fall sharply, and hardly anyone will be tested once all measures have been lifted. How can you still know how the infection process is going? SRF science editor Christian von Burg knows more about the precautions that should be taken now.
How is the view? After a probably relaxed spring and summer, the coming autumn and winter will again be the crux of the matter. Because the infection process in connection with Sars-CoV-2 occurs seasonally, as is now clear. The possible scenarios for the further course vary widely: from a relaxed autumn thanks to consistently good basic immunity and virus variants that cause little illness to new variants that bypass immunity and can make you seriously ill. This would again threaten to overload the healthcare system.
What preparations are necessary? A monitoring system must now be set up in order to always be up to date on the current infection process – and to be able to react at an early stage if necessary. To this end, measures are possible and necessary at various levels: Standardized data collection in hospitals, virus level monitoring in wastewater, random tests in the population. It is also necessary to investigate which virus variants are circulating and how pathogenic they are. The immunity of the population should also be tested on an ongoing basis – and for the long-Covid cases, a Switzerland-wide register is needed so that you have an overview here.
How far are the authorities? A monitoring program is being considered. But a lot is still open. Basically, Switzerland had problems collecting and collating reliable data throughout the pandemic. For example, in the last few weeks it was not known how large the proportion of all infections were primary infections or how many vaccinated or recovered people they affected. Good cooperation between the Confederation and the cantons is what is needed above all for seamless monitoring. It will probably take a while before a suitable program is in place.