Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Tuesday.
In the news: the Vladislav Klyushin controversy continues, Covid stress and a ‘calm before a possible storm’.
- The number of new daily Covid infections has slowed in recent days.External link This trend can also be observed in hospital admissions. However, federal health officials warn of a possible rapid spread of the new Omicron variant. “The short-term positive development in the number of cases is therefore more of a calm before another possible storm,” said Patrick Mathys of the Federal Office of Public Health. Omicron currently accounts for 10-20% of all new cases but they are likely to double every 2-3 days. Switzerland continues to have one of the highest infection rates in Europe.External link
- The University of Basel reports that psychological stress due to the pandemic remains high among Swiss residents. A studyExternal link of 11,000 people found that 19% have severe depressive symptoms. Young people with financial problems and those with a pre-existing mental illness are most badly affected. Almost three-quarters of unvaccinated people say the Covid certificate is a heavy stress.
- The Russian businessman, Vladislav Klyushin, extradited from a jail in the Swiss town of Sion to the United States last Saturday and four other Russians have been charged with carrying out a $82-million (CHF75 million) insider trading scheme using data stolen during hacks of US computer networks.
Moderna could be ready to develop a Omicron booster in weeks.
Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told the Tages-AnzeigerExternal link newspaper that he doesn’t expect any problems for his firm in developing a booster shot to protect against the Omicron variant. It could begin work “in a few weeks”
Moderna hopes to start clinical trials early next year on a vaccine to protect against the Omicron variant but for now is focusing on a booster dose vaccine. If approval bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration and Switzerland’s Swissmedic require further studies, that would add at least three months.
The company made between 700 million and 800 million Covid-19 vaccine doses this year, and expects to produce a higher number in 2022, boosting production from 100 million doses a month to 150 million. Additional production lines that are being built via a deal with Swiss-based drugmaker Lonza (see photo above of Visp factory) will become operational in the first quarter of 2022, boosting production.
Bancel added: “I would like to enter into a long-term partnershipwith Switzerland, with an obligation to purchase a certain quantity, so that we could also deliver quickly in the event of a new virus. Our goal is not to build a new plant in Switzerland. But it could be a partnership between us, Lonza and the Swiss government. It’s too early for details, though.”
Wanted: paid volunteers to help canton Vaud nursing homes.
Owing to the acute shortage of healthcare workers in canton Vaud (currently 8%) caused by the pandemic, the local authorities and the Vaud Red Cross are looking for paid volunteers to temporarily helpExternal link in old people’s homes and nursing homes.
In a press releaseExternal link they explain that they are seeking nursing professionals. But they also need people without medical training to help with admin, cooking, logistics or even the elderly residents’ leisure activities. Volunteers can include medical students, the unemployed, and retired or part-time workers. The pay: CHF33 per hour.
The Vaud Red Cross has launched a websiteExternal link where people can register. The University Hospital Basel carried out a similar strategy last month.
What some people get up to inside the Gotthard road tunnel.
The Gotthard road tunnel through the central Swiss Alps is one of Europe’s busiest north-south links for cars, buses and trucks.
On average over 17,000 vehicles pass through the 17-kilometre tunnel every day. Since its opening in 1980, 40 people have died in road accidents, including 11 victims of a fire in 2001. But other strange goings-on occur in the tunnel, as Tages-Anzeiger reportsExternal link.
U-turns inside the tunnel are not unusual. But sometimes the tube has other uses. A Dutch family once stopped in a tunnel lay-by for a picnic on a rainy night. Others tried to pitch a tent or use it as a location for an erotic photo shoot.
Cyclists and Chinese runners have been spotted trying to traverse the tunnel. A bagpipe player whose truck broke down even gave a mini concert.
Davos hoteliers and locals are reeling at news of the postponement of the World Economic Forum meeting – the second year in a row – due to the pandemic.
“It hurts,” Davos mayor Philipp Wilhelm told Blick.chExternal link about the last-minute cancellation.
Skiers and other holidaymakers won’t replace politicians and business leaders in January, say hoteliers.
Normally, Tamara Henderson’s Chalet-Hotel Larix would be fully booked for two weeks with WEF participants. “Now maybe half of the rooms are lost,” says Henderson, who also presides over the Hotel Gastro Davos Association. “Many hoteliers are exhausted.”
But not everyone is negative. Toni Morosani, who runs the Posthotel and the Schweizerhof in Davos, is expecting a good winter. “The WEF would have been the treat.” He now wants to attract guests with special offers to fill the WEF hole in January.
WEF organisers meanwhile stress that the influential gathering has been postponed until early summer and not totally cancelled.
Despite the bad news, the lucrative holiday season is just around the corner. In Davos, business is booming for the Christmas and New Year period. The Spengler Cup international ice hockey tournament should also attract tens of thousands of ice hockey fans to the resort in eastern Switzerland from December 26-31.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
