The cantons start the new year with these rules

The infections have reached a new all-time high in the past few weeks: Most recently, more than 19,000 people in Switzerland were infected with Sars-Cov-2 in one day. And the much more contagious Omikron variant is likely to become dominant very soon, which could further promote the high number of infections.

Biophysicist Richard Neher assumes that 30,000 infections a day will soon become a reality if the trend remains the same. He also fears that half of Switzerland could fall ill with Covid-19 within a few weeks. That’s what Neher said over the weekend to the Tamedia newspapers. Neher is a professor at the University of Basel and a member of the federal scientific corona task force. The next few weeks will show how realistic the scenario conjured up by Richard Neher is.

So far, however, Switzerland has done little to counter these developments. On the contrary, the Federal Council seems to be making a big – and risky – bet, as it is called in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. The freedom of the population to be gained is to be gained, the stability of the health system to be lost. But why does the federal government accept the risk of a total overload of the intensive care units at all?

No quarantine for those who have been boosted

Not all cantons like the fact that the federal government did not decide on any further measures after its conference call on Friday. For example, the Geneva health director Mauro Poggia called on the federal government to act. It is time to go back to the extraordinary situation, said Poggia on the news program “7.30pm” on TV in western Switzerland.

The health director of the Canton of Lucerne, Guido Graf, joined the call for more responsibility on the part of the federal government. Graf did not, however, come up with any concrete suggestions.

While Lucerne and Geneva stand for more control by the Federal Council and stricter measures, the governments of Basel-Stadt, Geneva, Jura, Valais, Vaud, Zug and Ticino are going in the other direction. They adjusted their quarantine regulations over the weekend. Anyone who has had contact with a person who tested positive therefore no longer has to be in quarantine for ten, but only seven days. Bern also recently decided to adopt this rule.

According to the new regime, people who were vaccinated or boosted or who have recovered less than four months ago are completely exempt from the quarantine obligation. In doing so, these cantons are following a recommendation by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

The employers’ association welcomes this step because it can reduce the number of employees who have to go into quarantine. The quarantine was “per se burdensome” for the economy, said Roland Müller, the director of the employers’ association, in the «Tagesschau» on SRF. The cantons’ new quarantine regulations will apply from next Monday.

Will the decision come on Wednesday?

However, the time when the cantons adopt their own measures could soon be over. The next media conference of the Federal Council is scheduled for next Wednesday. By then, the numbers of infections and hospitalizations should also be published over the New Year’s weekend.

If these figures continue the trend of the last few days, Health Minister Alain Berset would have the opportunity on Wednesday to prescribe new measures or to submit them to the cantons for consultation.

The top Swiss health director, Lukas Engelberger, explained at the weekend why that didn’t happen earlier. And new measures to contain the pandemic are not justified as long as there are no “hard facts”. Given this background, Engelberger finds it “plausible” that the Federal Council is still waiting at the moment – in his view, a short-term change of course would have damaged the government’s credibility.

For Lukas Engelberger, however, the next few days are decisive. They would show how to act. He also said that to the Tamedia newspapers.