Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
News that people will need to show a Covid certificate to enter bars, restaurants, fitness centres and museums from Monday continues to make waves. It is also reportedly having an immediate impact on vaccination registrations. But opponents of the move continue to make their voices heard.
In the news: More Covid protests, Red Cross in Afghanistan and mountain fondues.
- Further protests took place in central Bern on Thursday evening against extending the use of the Covid certificate, which shows if a person is vaccinated, tested or recovered. Around 1,000 people took part, the Keystone-SDA news agency reported.
- Eating a fondue in a mountain cable car has become popular in Switzerland in recent years. But it is now banned under a new European Union regulation, adopted by Switzerland, as Blick reportsExternal link. The Federal Office of Transport is trying to find a common solution.
- This coming winter only people with a Covid certificate may be allowed access to mountain railways, Hans Wicki, the president of the Swiss Mountain Railway Association, told central Swiss radio stations today. Talks are currently taking place about whether to impose the certificate in Swiss ski resorts.
- Meanwhile, the head of the Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross has just returned from Afghanistan and has been reflecting on his experiences there. “I trust that we can at least negotiate a humanitarian space with the Taliban that allows us to better serve the population, but I do not rule out that we will have difficulties,” Peter Maurer told Swiss public radio SRF today following his three-day visit to the capital, Kabul.
- Cantons Vaud and Zurich signed an agreement todayExternal link to encourage school children to cross the Röstigraben to do a language exchange in the respective German- or French-speaking region. Neuchâtel and Schwyz announced a similar accord earlier this week to boost the number of language exchanges.
Vaccine demand rises in response to Covid certificate plans.
The government’s recent decision to impose the use of the Covid certificate in public spaces from next Monday seems to be having an immediate impact as new registrations for the Covid vaccine pick up, according to Swiss public radio RTSExternal link. Many cantons are ramping up access to Covid vaccinations. But some people have been getting the jab reluctantly.
On Wednesday the government announced that from September 13 people will need to show a Covid certificate to enter bars, restaurants and fitness centres in Switzerland. The decision was taken to relieve pressure on hospitals that are struggling to cope with a fourth wave of infections, it said. The certificate shows if a person is vaccinated, tested or recovered.
The authorities are especially concerned by Switzerland’s stagnating vaccine rate. Currently around 52% of the population is fully vaccinated, a lower rate than in many other European countriesExternal link.
In some places the effect of the government announcement was immediate. In canton Valais, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, almost 1,300 people signed up for a Covid vaccination on Wednesday. Registrations were also up in cantons Geneva and Jura, local authorities reported.
But reports suggest that not everyone is going willingly. RTS said that staff at vaccination centres were seeing people who were still not convinced about the benefits of the vaccine. “I am never ill; I never get anything. I am wondering if injecting this substance will change my body,” said one person in the RTS report, who nevertheless got the jab. Meanwhile, those who refuse to get vaccinated face changes to their usual routines with the arrival of the certificate, as 20Minuten.ch reportsExternal link.
Swiss-based football bodies clash over World Cup changes.
Zurich-based FIFA’s planExternal link to reshape international football and the World Cup doesn’t seem to have got off to a good start.
Arsene Wenger, the chief of global football development at football’s governing body, is the driving force behind plans to hold a World Cup finals every two years instead of four, as unveiled this week.
But it has met strong opposition from the European body UEFA, which has its headquarters in Nyon, in canton Vaud, and major leagues.
Brazil’s former star Ronaldo called the plan “just amazing”, but UEFA president Aleksander CeferinExternal link has warned of a potential European boycott of the World Cup if FIFA moves ahead.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
