Now it’s suddenly fast. Germany has already responded. Just like Austria, Sweden, Greece or Belgium. They all decided on Thursday to introduce a mandatory test for people entering China because of the corona wave. It was not until Wednesday evening that health experts from the 27 EU countries strongly advised such a test. France, Italy and Spain had already independently decided on measures beforehand. Anyone who tests positive must be quarantined.
In Switzerland, too, the call for stricter measures to protect the population against possible virus mutations is getting louder. However, the Federal Public Service of Public Health (BAG) still sees no urgent need for action. The federal government is based on the EU, the BAG had always said. The recommendations of the EU meeting would now be studied in detail, it said when asked.
“Don’t Wait for the Weather to Burn”
In recent days, politicians from different camps had pointed to the urgency. “We must not make the same mistake as three years ago,” SVP party leader Thomas Aeschi (43) told Blick. The chairman of the Health Commission of the National Council plans to submit an application next week to the health service of SP federal councilor Alain Berset (50).
“We can’t wait for there to be a fire again,” agrees center politician Lorenz Hess (61). Healthcare is already at risk today: “We don’t need to aggravate the situation any further.” It is therefore wrong to wait any longer.
Authorities do not assume an increased risk
After nearly three years of mass testing, closed borders, travel bans and lockdowns, the Chinese regime surprisingly announced the end of its zero-Covid policy in early December. Since then, an estimated 250 million people have contracted the virus. That is almost every fifth of the 1.4 billion inhabitants. There are no reliable data on this because the authorities no longer publish information about this.
In Switzerland, however, those responsible have so far relaxed. So far, it can be assumed that “the current infection process in China poses an increased risk to the Swiss health system, as omicron variants have also been circulating here for some time,” explains the conference of the cantonal health directors.
The vast majority of people in Switzerland have been vaccinated, have had an infection, or both, and therefore have a high degree of protection against serious disease.