Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Monday.
In the news: Israeli travel ban, WEF Davos cancellation and drink-driving accidents.
- Israel added Switzerland and the United States to its “no-fly” list on Monday over concerns about the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
- The Covid-19 pandemic and new Omicron variant have severely disrupted plans to hold the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) main annual meeting in Davos for a second year in a row. The January 17-21 event will be cancelled and moved to the summer.
- Geneva has the worst record for serious alcohol–related driving accidentsExternal link (1.01 per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by cantons Thurgau, Zug, Nidwalden and Valais. The national average rose from 0.44 (2019) to 0.47 per 100,000 last year for unknown reasons, said the Swiss Touring Club, which carried out the survey.
British skiers are still booking winter holidays in Switzerland despite pandemic concerns.
European countries like France, Germany and Austria have imposed severe travel restrictions to slow the spread of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. For British skiers wanting a winter holiday in the Alps, Switzerland remains an option.
While neighbouring countries have tightened restrictions, it is still possible for British holidaymakers to enter Switzerland, although strict entry conditions still apply.
Holiday bookings from British skiers are increasing in the classic winter destinations like Verbier and Mürren, Swiss public TV SRF reportsExternal link.
“We feel that the English guests really want to come; it gives them security. Restaurants are open here, in contrast to other countries, where the situation is stricter than in Switzerland,” declared Mürren director Rachel Arkin.
The director of Verbier tourist office, Simon Wiget, thinks many British skiers who cannot now go to France due to tough travel restrictions have rebooked to come to the Swiss resort in canton Valais.
Fed up, exhausted and unable to see light at the end of the tunnel, Swiss health workers are suffering due to the heavy Covid-19 pandemic workload.
Last week, 15 health organisations sounded the alarm in an open letter to politicians. “Carers are falling ill, being quarantined or giving up their profession. The endurance of health professionals is being undermined,” they wrote.
Swiss public radio RTSExternal link spoke to various teams in French-speaking hospitals who confirmed the problems.
“We also have the right to say that we are fed up. I’m really fed up,” said Florence a nurse from Neuchâtel. “It’s especially the atmosphere; it’s heavy… I really feel sorry for my colleagues in intensive care. They have no time to breathe.”
With each new pandemic wave and new variant “you tell yourself we’re off again on another round; you have the impression that you’ll never get out of it”, she adds.
In canton Valais at the Centre hospitalier du Valais Romand 15% of staff are currently absent. In cantons Fribourg and Jura, the figure is 10%. In large hospitals like the University Hospital Geneva (HUG) or the University Hospital Lausanne (CHUV), absenteeism is around 10% and 7%, respectively. Absence at work is due to the pandemic, but also accidents, maternity leave and classic winter illnesses.
Thomas Oliver Kellenberger has quit his job and apartment in Switzerland to walk from Wilderswil, in canton Bern, to the Philippines – for a good cause.
The Blick.ch newspaperExternal link reports today on the 39-year-old, who set off on his charity walk in August to draw attention to the plight of abused children in the Philippines. He is currently in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, after passing through Slovenia and the Adriatic coast via Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia.
His goal is to walk 15,000 kilometres to Mindanao in the Philippines (see photo above) by spring 2023. In so doing, he hopes to generate at least CHF165,000 in charity donations for the construction and operation of a children’s village.
In 2019, Kellenberger quit his job as a cantonal police officer in Switzerland and moved to the Philippines. Moved by the poverty, he and his mother founded the Swiss Friends’ Association Island Kids Philippines in 2007 and later the Philippine Island Kids Foundation, Inc.
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