Covid is back. The country is experiencing another wave of Covid virus, but it is relatively mild with only 3% of those infected requiring hospitalisation. The reason the Health Department was able to establish this, was by studying the Covid levels in the water and found it to be as high as in previous waves. Add to that the Rhinovirus which is currently circulating, it is no wonder that people are calling in sick and that doctor’s offices are overrun. Luckily the flu season is only slowly making its entrance, but it promises to be a challenging autumn/winter season.
This year was a bumper year for ticks, the pesky insects who need to suck blood 3 times in their life. Researchers have found that nearly every tick contains potential harmful bacteria, although luckily only 4.2% carried the dangerous meningoencephalitis virus. Lyme disease was carried by 8.2% of ticks near cities but only 1.9% of country ticks.
Going to Germany or France to do your shopping? Shopping tourists spend around 8.7 billion francs abroad on goods that are cheaper than in Switzerland. To counter this the government is considering reducing the duty free allowed amount of goods brought abroad from CHF 300.- worth to CHF 150.- Those against the initiative are suggested lowering the price of goods in the country in order to make it less attractive to cross the border.
The French president Emmanuel Macron will be visiting Switzerland tomorrow for two days. The relationship between France and Switzerland is relatively close, with 220 000 French citizens crossing into Switzerland each day to work. A further 180 000 French citizens own property in Switzerland, and 200 000 Swiss citizens own property in France. Another topic that links the two countries is energy. Switzerland buys a lot of its electricity from its French neighbour ad one of the main topics of conversation between Macron and Alain Berset will be the concession for three hydroelectric power plants being built along the river Doubs in the region of Jura, as well as a possible Tour de France start in Switzerland.
The Swiss have a saying: “today it will only rain once” – i.e. don’t expect anything else. The sun will be making on/offappearances as of tomorrow again as temperatures drop towards the end of the week.
If you haven’t already changed to winter tyres, now is the time to get an appointment.
