The legal challenge to exclusions, brought by the father of a school pupil, failed on appeal as the court ruled that the requirement to test was reasonable.
The argument that such spit tests are not carried out by a doctor was also thrown out. The Zurich administrative court said on Monday that pupils could opt to carry out such a test at a doctor’s surgery.
Many schools in Switzerland carry out mass testing of pupils, particularly after the emergence of the Omicron variant.
It has been legally established in Zurich that refusal to take a test means the pupil can be considered as infected with coronavirus and must quarantine for 10 days.
The court also ruled that a 10-day exclusion was not long enough to impair pupils’ education. The ruling, which applies to canton Zurich, could yet be appealed to a federal court, reports Swiss public broadcaster SRFExternal link.
It is up to individual cantons to decide on whether to impose testing or mask-wearing obligations.
On Friday the government said that all upper secondary school pupils must wear a mask across the country while strongly recommending all cantons to insist on masks for younger pupils and to carry out testing.
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