Switzerland today
Greetings from Lausanne!
It’s been a busy start to the week as more people return to school and work from their holidays. On the international front, Afghanistan continues to dominate our attention, alongside Covid. And the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad Council (OSA) wraps up its online meeting today.
In the news: Afghanistan, the Swiss National Bank chairman, OSA and US fighter jets.
- Switzerland has been able to get around 100 people, including the first local staff working for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), out of Afghanistan, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed today.
- In an interview with Swiss public radio SRF,External link Dominik Stillhart, the director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), talks about the current humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
- The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad Council (OSA) meetingExternal link ends today. Various issues are being discussed, including a resolution urging the government to define a clear strategy to preserve the achievements of the free movement of people between Switzerland and the European Union. On Friday, the OSA council elected its long-time Vice-President Filippo Lombardi (photo above) as its new president.
- Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Thomas Jordan, 58, could be out of action for several weeks after reportedly undergoing a heart operation over the weekend.
- The Swiss government wants to buy 36 F-35A fighter planes from the US firm Lockheed Martin to replace its ageing fleet of F-5 Tigers and F/A-18 Hornet jets by 2030. But critics are unhappy with the idea of Switzerland buying US jets. The Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) has begun collecting signatures for a people’s initiative.
- An international team of archaeologists started their workExternal link to determine whether a prehistoric settlement is hidden at the bottom of Lake Lucerne, after traces of a Bronze Age village were found earlier this year.
In canton Vaud, where I live, 90,000 Vaud children went back to school today.
Most other children are back in their classrooms in other regions. This comes amid concerns over rising Covid cases and hospital admissions, and a certain confusion over the wearing of masks and testing in school, as the situation varies from region to regionExternal link. Lukas Engelberger, president of the Conference of Cantonal Health Directors, is calling for uniform nationwide Covid prevention rules for schools.
From today, unvaccinated doctors and nurses in Geneva working in public and private institutions and old peoples’ homes must take a Covid-19 testExternal link at least once a week before starting work. Anyone who refuses risks a fine.
The Federal Office of Public Health reportedExternal link 6,218 additional Covid cases over the past three days, eight more deaths and 143 new hospital admissions. The numbers are up. The seven-day average of new infections is 32% higher than the previous week. There are now 720 people in hospital being treated for Covid (+45% compared with the previous week), according to SRFExternal link. An average of 19,795 people are being vaccinated every day (down from the 90,000 peak before summer). Just over half of the population are double-jabbed.
Demonstrations over Covid prevention measures heated up this weekendExternal link. The Office of the Attorney General of Zurich today opened a criminal complaint against a 44-year-old man who attacked Health Minister Natalie Rickli at Gossau. She was doused with apple juice by the protester at the inauguration of a mobile Covid vaccination clinic.
Long Covid: Most people who get Covid-19 won’t become severely ill but significant numbers have had long-term problems after getting infected.
Long Covid, a condition where patients experience symptoms such as chronic fatigue, breathlessness, muscle pain and headaches, can be extremely debilitating.
In Switzerland, long Covid sufferers have struggled for help and recognition, but finally their plight is becoming better accepted. Research into long Covid, however, remains in its infancy in the Alpine country with many open questions, as today’s report by my colleague Christian Raaflaub reveals.
As society reopens and a fourth wave of the more contagious Delta variant picks up, there are fears of a surge in long Covid cases that could disproportionately affect those not yet fully vaccinated, especially the young.
This is certainly the case in the UKExternal link, where long Covid has been widely reported. In a recent series of NHSExternal link videos, young patients experiencing the debilitating effects of long Covid urge people to get their vaccine. In Switzerland, long Covid is also a worry among young people. “In retrospect, I regret not getting vaccinated,” 18-year-old Agnes, a long Covid sufferer, tells her 160,000 followers on the video app Tiktok, as 20Minuten.ch reportsExternal link.
It is still unclear how bad the problem is, or will become. The largest ever international study of people with long Covid identified more than 200 symptomsExternal link – from brain fog and hallucinations to tremors and tinnitus – spanning ten of the body’s organ systems, and a third of the symptoms continued to affect patients for at least six months.
Despite our improved knowledge of long Covid, there are still many open questions: How is society dealing with it? What is the extent of the disease? What are the therapies? Can I get long Covid if I’m infected after vaccination?External link
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
