The government will be deciding tomorrow whether the period required for quarantining should be shortened to 5 days or even, as some politicians are suggesting, totally cancelled. There is a growing movement, in particularly from the right political factions, to have the isolation and quarantine rules lifted and let the pandemic run its course. They argue that this way the country would have herd immunity with one the less serious variants. However doctors are cautioning that we do not have enough data to show whether the cases of long covid are less with the Omicron variant or not, and that the hsopitals could not cope with too many cases at the same time. They are asking that all measures be kept in place until further notice.
If you are of the herd immunity set of mind then you may want to head over to Wengen this weekend for the Lauberhorn downhill ski race. 3G certificates will be required but not the wearing of masks, and if last week’s event in Adelboden is anything to go by there will be quite a crowd!
Over the weekend and yesterday 63 647 new corona cases were recorded in Switzerland, this is up 62% on the previous week. The number of hospitalised cases is up by 10% and 48 people died from Covid.
The canton of Lucerne has introduced mass testing in primary schools and is advising older students who are vaccinated to also take part in the weekly spool saliva testing.
Globus has been bought by a consortium which also owns Selfridges. Whether this means that we will be seeing Selfridges labelled goods in Switzeland reamains to be seen.
The LiLu Festival continues to be a great success. Be sure to dress warmly and enjoy an evening stroll downtown to discover its magic.
