Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Breaking: Second Coronavirus Death Confirmed in Switzerland


Sun 08 Mar 2020 | 03:29 PM
H-Tayea

A second coronavirus death has been confirmed in Switzerland on Sunday. The person died in Liestal hospital in canton Basel Country in northern Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the first death case from the virus was a 74-year-old woman, who had been hospitalized in Lausanne.

“The situation is serious and becoming more so, but there is no reason to panic,” Daniel Koch of the health office told a news conference in Bern on Sunday.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus, the government has categorized the situation in the country as “special”, under the terms of the Epidemics Act. This allows the authorities to take over certain powers from the 26 cantons and to order measures, including bans on events. The application of these legal provisions is a first for Switzerland.

Specifically, the government has banned all major events with more than 1,000 people until at least March 15, 2020. Events of over 150 in principle also need to get the go-ahead from cantonal authorities.

Major cancelled events include the Geneva International Motor Show, the Baselworld watch fair, and the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva.  All top-flight Swiss football and ice-hockey games have also been called off, as have numerous local social and cultural events.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet imposed any travel restrictions. It is advisable to check when travelling to events to see if they are still taking place, as major events have been banned and cantons and cities can also ban smaller events.

No special measures are currently planned at a national level for schools, day-care centers, homes and other educational or care institutions. However, some local or cantonal authorities have taken precautions, limiting access.

The government has ruled out closing the borders for the time being. Swiss International Airlines has reduced the number of flights to areas with a particular risk of infection, including cancelling all flights to Tel Aviv in Israel between Sunday 8 March and Saturday 28 March.

On Wednesday, Israel ordered travelers arriving from Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Austria to go into home quarantine, as it had already done for those returning from Italy, China and Singapore.