Switzerland today

Greetings from Bern,

temperatures outside were close to freezing today morning which means it’s time for heating bills again. Speaking of bills, travellers from outside the EU will have to pay for a Swiss Covid certificate and Covid tests are no longer “free” for locals.

There is a fee for that. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Pay or stay away: No such thing as a free Covid test or certificate

• From today, unvaccinated Swiss residents will have to pay CHF50 to get tested for Covid-19, unless they exhibit symptoms or are below 16. It is part of a strategy to nudge people to get vaccinated and to reduce government spending on fighting the pandemic. Continuing to provide free testing until the end of January 2022 would have cost taxpayers CHF770 million. 
• Also dipping into their wallets will be travellers from outside the EU and EFTA region. They will have to pay CHF30 to convert their health passes into Swiss Covid certificates because their QR codes wouldn’t work in the country. 
• Covid is not the only virus affecting Switzerland. Hackers have carried out a cyberattack on the town of Montreux on Lake Geneva. A similar attack on Rolle, another town on the lake, earlier this year resulted in theft of personal data which was posted on the Darknet. Ransomware attacks by hackers continue to increase sharply in Switzerland, with some 2,700 Swiss firms falling victim over the past year, according to Beobachter magazine.

The Cold War may be over but a food stocking habit may still come useful. Keystone / Str

From pandemics to cyberattacks: How do you prepare for emergencies?

War is an unlikely scenario in Europe today but threats like pandemics, electricity shortages, cyberattacks, crop failures, natural disasters or blocked trade routes can make life difficult for a while. Swiss broadcaster SRF gets an expert’s opinionExternal link on how to prepare for modern-day emergencies without transforming into a hardcore prepper or survivalist.

A footbridge prototype using reinforced-concrete blocks from walls of a building being renovated. EPFL

A bridge not too far: Concrete measures for a circular economy

We Swiss consider ourselves as champion recyclers – or to be more accurate champion sorters of rubbish into paper, plastic, aluminium, glass, compost, etc. But what about concrete? Today, the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) will unveil a footbridge made from unwanted concreteExternal link sourced from a building under renovation. 

“Most buildings in Switzerland are made out of concrete, and producing this raw material accounts for 7% of CO2 emissions from anthropogenic activity. What’s more, concrete makes up 50% of demolition waste,” says Corentin Fivet, one of the researchers behind the project. 

The recycled concrete footbridge doesn’t look ugly thanks to its arched shape. Fans of Brutalist architecture might even call it beautiful.