Switzerland Today

Greetings from Lausanne!

The world mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II. From flowers covering the gates of Buckingham Palace in London, to images of her towering over New York’s Times Square to the Christ the Redeemer statue glowing in the colours of Britain’s flag in Rio De Janeiro, tributes have been pouring in around the world.

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis paid his respects, saying she would be remembered as a “woman of great strength and steady leadership”. The Queen was a "moral compass" who had shaped many generations, he told reporters in Bern today.

In the capital, Switzerland's flag on the parliament building is flying half-mast in her honour.

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

In the news: Swiss-EU talks, souped-up electric scooters, a cannabis pilot and a new dam plant.

• The president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Thomas Jordan, says the inflation outlook is more uncertain than normal and it is premature to say prices have peaked.
• The ‘Weed Care’ experiment in the city of Basel, Switzerland’s first pilotproject for the legal sale of cannabis products, was supposed to launch on September 15. But it has been put on hold because traces of pesticides were found in some of the supposedly organic plants.
• The Swiss Solidarity fund has so far collected CHF2.1 million ($2.15 million) from the public to help bring relief to the victims of serious flooding in Pakistan.
• Fribourg cantonal police have seized three electricscooters with engines that had been altered and fitted with devices allowing them to reach speeds of up to 140 km/h; the maximum legal speed for an electric scooter is 20 km/h.
• The fourth round of exploratorytalks between Switzerland and the European Union aimed at resolving differences concerning future bilateral relations has ended without any clearprogress in sight, Swiss State Secretary Livia Leu declared on Thursday. A fifth round is planned on October 12.
• The new Nant de Drance pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in canton Valais was officially inaugurated today. Using two dam reservoirs, it will help Switzerland cope with fluctuations in wind and solar-power supply, and will stabilize electricity output for the whole of Europe.

Keystone / Str

When Queen Elizabeth II visited Switzerland.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and the nation’s figurehead for seven decades, died on Thursday aged 96.

Tributes have been pouring in. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency, joined world leaders in expressing sympathy and condolences to the Royal Family.

“Deeplysaddened by the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II,” wrote Cassis in a tweet shortly after news broke on Thursday. “My sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family on behalf of the Federal Council and the people of Switzerland. She will be remembered as a woman of great strength & steady leadership.”

Switzerland’sflag on the parliament building in the capital, Bern, was flying half-mast in her honour on Friday.

The Queen made only one official state visit to Switzerland, and it created quite a sensation. She spent four days with her husband Prince Philip in April 1980. The British sovereign travelled by train and Rolls Royce to several towns including Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lausanne, Montreux, and Lucerne. She also visited the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and gave a speech on the iconic Rütli meadow where she thanked the Swiss people for their warm welcome in this “delightful country”.

Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

Swiss government recommends Covid booster from mid-October.

Switzerland kicked off its autumn Covid-19 vaccinationcampaign today. The authorities held a press conference in Bern where they recommended that people aged over 16, especially the most vulnerable, get a Covid-19boostershot to contain a new wave of infections expected this autumn and winter.

After a rise in new Covid infections in June and July due to new Omicron subvariants, cases have fallen to a “relatively low level” in Switzerland. The number of hospital admissions is also down.

But based on experience over the past two years, an increase in transmissions of the virus is expected from autumn 2022. 

As in past, priority is with the mostvulnerable. The authorities recommend that people aged 65 or over, and those aged 16 to 64 with an increased risk, for example pregnant women, get a Covid booster shot this autumn. This recommendation also applies to healthcare workers.

For anyone aged 16-64 without risk factors, a booster vaccination “makes sense after individual assessment… to reduce the risk of a serious and rare infection”, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) said.

Looking ahead, the FOPH said the situation “differs markedly from that of the last two winters”. Currently, 97% of the population have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 following vaccination or recovery.

“People without risk factors are unlikely to develop severe symptoms this fall,” it said. Around 69% of the population have so far received two doses of vaccine.