Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
In today’s briefing, Covid makes a reappearance after a few weeks of respite, and the Rolling Stones announce a visit to the Swiss capital.
In the news: numbers of Ukrainian refugees rising, GDP forecasts falling.
- The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is planning to set up online registration for Ukrainian refugees, after long queues at federal asylum centres at the weekend. On Saturday, a new “S” permit for Ukrainian refugees came into force; it will allow those fleeing the war to live, work, and go to school here. As of this morning, 3,843 Ukrainians – mostly women and children – had been registered with federal authorities.
- US sanctions have targeted a yacht and an aircraft belonging to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. The US says Vekselberg – who is a resident in Switzerland and who has significant business interests here – has close links to Vladimir Putin; Washington previously imposed sanctions on him in 2018. Switzerland is so far following the list of sanctioned individuals drawn up by the EU, on which Vekselberg’s name does not appear.
- The Swiss economics ministry has downgraded its growth forecast from 3% to 2.8% for 2022, due to the war in Ukraine. The fact that it has not been dampened even further is due to the ministry not taking into account the pessimistic scenarios of “a massive shortage of energy or raw materials in Europe”. It also bumped up its inflation forecast from 1.1% to 1.9%. UBS was more downbeat, lowering its GDP growth forecast for Switzerland to 2.5%.
Covid, and debates about what to do about it, linger like a bad cold.
To distract us from the nightmare of Ukraine, Swiss epidemiologists generously decided to help out over the past few days by talking about Covid. Indeed, the virus itself has also been joining the solidarity efforts by stubbornly refusing to go away after last month’s lifting of most restrictions. On Monday, 70,000 new cases were reported for the past three days, and anecdotally, everybody here seems to know somebody who has (or who has just had) Covid. And with the positivity rate hovering near 50%, there are suspicions that the real level of transmission is even higher.
Yesterday, epidemiologist Marcel Salathé said the government should be wary about removing the last two remaining restrictions (masks on public transport and isolation for those who test positive) at the end of the month. For Salathé, the two measures are so simple and effective that they would be easy to keep, especially since he’s worried that the current spread means deaths and hospital admissions are likely to increase. For Laurent Kaiser however, head of infectious diseases at the Geneva University Hospital, the situation is far from alarming, even if it needs to be watched. Omicron is working “a bit like a vaccine” among the population, Kaiser toldExternal link RTS television last night.
Politicians are meanwhile sticking to their lines. SRF quotesExternal link a representative of the right-wing People’s Party calling for a full end of measures (in fact he said this should have been done already) a left-wing social democrat wary about acting too fast, and a centre-right Radical-Liberal talking about “self-responsibility”. As for the government, which must be enjoying the first Covid lull in two years, it isn’t overly worried about the recent hike in cases – which was “to be expected”, Interior Minister Alain Berset said last week. However, it is preparing for whatever unexpected might be coming down the line; on top of supplies for this year, it has already ordered 14 million vaccines for 2023.
Rolling Stones back in Bern for the first time in 49 years.
The Rolling Stones are going on tour again, this time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the band’s founding. The list of European venues for the summer gigs is the usual run-down of metropolises: Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Munich, Milan, and – of course! – Bern. The small Swiss capital, not renowned for being a mecca of much, will host the band on June 17, for the first time since 1973. The concert will take place in Wankdorf, where the stadium, usually the home ground of the Young Boys Bern football team, will become the home of Old Men Britain for a while: a few weeks before Mick Jagger (78) and Keith Richards (78), Elton John (74) will be playing.
Spring-cleaning: Covid also has impact on domestic hygiene.
Another apparent change as a result of the pandemic is that people are more concerned about cleanliness, announced today the “Batmaid” firm, which fortunately specialises in cleaning. Basing their claim on a survey of 2,000 people in Switzerland, Batmaid said a quarter of respondents now clean their home more often than before, which means (for Batmaid) the recruitment of 1,000 new staff over the next months. The company, which started out as an “Uber of cleaners”, now employs 4,000 “cleaning agents” directly, who it sends out to the homes and offices of clients. Despite its name, which suggests a renegade cleaner breaking in to wash floors in the middle of the night, one of Batmaid’s self-proclaimed priorities is to fight against black market work in the cleaning sector.
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