The numbers are slowing down, but the worst is not over yet: Stefan Kuster of the Federal Office of Public Health does not turn off the alarm at a press conference in Bern. Switzerland has become one of the countries with the worst COVID numbers, surpassing Belgium by rate of positivity and stopping a few steps from the Czech Republic, the European state that scores the highest percentage.
As Kuster spoke yesterday, the bulletin marked 5,980 new infections. On November 5, the 10 thousand cases registered in a single day were exceeded: 10,043, to be precise. But the data to keep under control is above all another, that of the positivity rate: 26.7% yesterday, in second place in Europe, preceded only by the Czech Republic. In Italy it was 16%. According to the WHO, exceeding 5 signals that the virus is out of control.
The covid abacus currently marks a total of 235,000 cases and 2,683 deaths. The Swiss government has given the green light to deploy up to 2,500 troops to help the health system handle the second wave. On November 1, the government of the canton of Geneva said in a statement that the saturation of the hospital system is “imminent”.
Switzerland had survived the first spring wave relatively unscathed, so how did it find itself in this situation? Try to answer the US magazine Foreign Policy, which he compared the numbers disclosed by the WHO and analyzed what happened in the country.
After the first wave, Switzerland eased its anti-contagion measures faster than other European countries and the United States. No obligation to wear protective masks indoors, bars and clubs open again. Bern has lifted the ban on events with over a thousand people. Until a few days ago, people lived in the country as if the covid had never existed and even now no drastic measures have been taken, despite the numbers pushing the alert very high.
One of the obstacles to the application of more restrictive measures, writes Foreign Policy, is federalism: “After the first wave, the federal government has given the 26 cantons of Switzerland the competence to introduce their own containment measures. But these often tiny cantons (the smallest covers only half an area of Manhattan) hesitate to act. As a local politician, how can you explain to a restaurant owner that he has to close a shop if his colleague who lives five minutes away by car can still serve? ”.
The other obstacle, the main one, concerns the very nature of Switzerland, a country that has built its economic success on a liberal market and a strong work ethic. “We can’t afford a second lockdown. We don’t have the money to do it, ”said Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. But the effects of a soft stance against covids are also reflected in the economy: the Swiss are afraid of the virus and shorten their social life. This is how about sixty economics professors active in various Swiss universities are suffering and have sent a letter to the Federal Council, asking for total closure. The reason is explained by Sergio Rossi, professor of economics at the University of Friborg, among the signatories: “A second lockdown would be better now because for the economic system the total cost would be lower than what it will have to bear if we were to continue with these measures, which are neither effective nor sufficient”.
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