Swiss doctors sound alarm over sharp rise in Covid patients
An intensive care team looks after Covid patients at the Triemli hospital in Zurich on December 10, 2020.
Keystone / Gaetan Bally
A Swiss doctors’ association has warned of a “very steep” rise in the number of seriously ill Covid-19 patients - mostly unvaccinated - in intensive care in the past few days. Many of them are young people.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/RTS/sb
“Health teams in intensive care units, who have been extremely busy for the past 18 months, risk being again exposed to increased pressure,” the Swiss Society of Intensive Medicine said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.
It said it could not rule out a further shortage of intensive care staff, which would lead to a worsening situation in intensive care units.
The number of daily hospital admissions across the country has risen tenfold from 2-3 in July to around 30. On Tuesday, it was reported that 500 people were being treated in Swiss hospitals for Covid-19. Around 70% of intensive beds are occupied, 14% by Covid patients. The number of Covid-related deaths remains at a low level.
In an interview this week, Tanja Stadler, the new head of Switzerland’s Covid-19 science taskforce, said the current virus situation was “very difficult”. She said that if the number of hospital admissions doubled again three times in the next month, as it did over the previous month, “then we will be at the same level as during the worst period of the second wave [last autumn]”.
More
More
Health officials cautious about climbing Covid case numbers
This content was published on
Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Switzerland, although hospital admissions and intensive care numbers are manageable, officials have said.
During this period, there were 8.3 hospital admissions per million residents among those who had been fully vaccinated against Covid. Among non-vaccinated people, this rate was 105.9.
The latest health ministry statistics show that between the end of January and middle of August, 122 people were hospitalised due to Covid despite being fully vaccinated. Of these, 23 died – 21 of them were over 80 years old.
More
More
Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland
This content was published on
An overview of the latest Covid-related information in the Alpine nation.
This content was published on
Swiss public broadcasters RTS and SRF are drastically reducing their communications via the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Israel: president of Swiss universities rejects academic boycott
This content was published on
Luciana Vaccaro, president of Swissuniversities, the umbrella group of Swiss universities, is not in favour of an academic boycott of Israeli universities.
First large-scale alpine solar plant approved in Switzerland
This content was published on
The approval was met with satisfaction by the project's organisers, but it also brings with it a certain amount of pressure.
Medieval squirrels may have ‘helped spread leprosy’
This content was published on
An examination of squirrel remains in the United Kingdom has opened up interesting questions and possibilities in terms of the history of the disease.
Health officials cautious about climbing Covid case numbers
This content was published on
Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Switzerland, although hospital admissions and intensive care numbers are manageable, officials have said.
Covid taskforce chief ‘positively surprised’ by health situation
This content was published on
The chances of easing coronavirus restrictions in Switzerland are improving, according to the president of the Swiss Covid task force. But the business community is losing patience.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.