Omicron as an opportunity? – Rickli: “Mostly back to normal after a wave of monsters” – News

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  • The current wave of Omikron cannot be stopped, said Natalie Rickli in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. “We can no longer gloss over the situation.”
  • However, the Zurich health director sees Omikron as an opportunity. After heavy weeks, normality will soon be possible for the most part again.
  • Like the economic umbrella organization Economiesuisse and other health directors, Rickli also demands that the quarantine be shortened to five days.

Everyone would be affected by the “monster wave” that is currently rolling across the country – society, the economy and every individual. “You have to be clear about that now, and I hope that the Federal Council will do the same on Wednesday,” said Rickli in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. It is important to take the population with us “on the difficult path that lies ahead”. The Zurich health director explicitly does not mention the word “contamination”. However. “It’s just the reality that we’re all going to be immunizing now. Be it through the booster or through infection. “

The Zurich health director, however, is optimistic about the near future. Studies and figures from other countries finally gave hope that the wave would be violent but short. “Then the virus should become endemic, like the flu. That could already be the case at the end of February, or then in spring, ”says Rickli.

The demand for a shortened quarantine is getting louder

The SVP politician suspects that the Omikron variant could lead to up to 40,000 cases a day in the canton of Zurich alone at the end of January. That would paralyze society if you don’t act now. Therefore, the federal government urgently needs to reduce the duration of the quarantine and isolation to five days.

The health directors in eastern Switzerland asked the Federal Council in a letter on Friday. Anyone who is symptom-free for 48 hours should then be allowed to end the isolation or quarantine. Because Omikron has a shorter incubation time than previous variants. People with symptoms would have to stay at home.

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Under certain conditions, the epidemiologist Marcel Salathé could even imagine an abolition of the quarantine obligation. According to the Sunday newspaper, he suggests that every person who has had contact with an infected person should receive ten rapid tests. The person then has to test himself daily. As long as the test is negative, the person concerned can go back to work with cautious behavior. Salathé admitted that there was a residual risk with this approach. In view of the large failures due to the corona wave, however, this is justifiable.

The Bern health director Pierre-Alain Schnegg also told the French-speaking radio RTS on Saturday evening that the reduction to five days had to come quickly. He very much hope that this can be the case as early as next week. “After that, it would be good to discuss the abolition of the quarantine requirement,” said Schnegg.

Legend:

The Bernese health director Schnegg would like the shortened quarantine to become a fact next week.

Keystone

The President of the Cantonal Doctors, Rudolf Hauri, showed understanding for this demand in relation to the “NZZ am Sonntag”. He would also welcome it if the Federal Council shortened the duration of isolation and quarantine. Because there are indications that those infected with Omikron are infectious for a shorter time.

On Friday, according to the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), around 89,989 people were in isolation and 28,247 people were in quarantine. Last week, the trade association Economiesuisse therefore called for the quarantine period for symptom-free people to be reduced to five days. In this way, the risk of production losses can be reduced.

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