Switzerland: the hospital system under water because of the second wave of Covid-19
Health worker demonstrating, in Bern, Switzerland, on October 31, to demand better working conditions (Illustration).
STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Some European countries are feeling the second wave of coronavirus more than others.
This is the case for Switzerland.
Still relatively spared a few weeks ago, the country is today one of those where the number of new cases is increasing the most.
So much so that the hospital system is already under water.
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In a video of barely 2 minutes, we see the seven members of the Federal Council, the equivalent of the government in Switzerland, calling on the population to respect barrier gestures.
It is too little, too late for the Swiss media who criticize the executive for its slowness in the face of the explosion in the number of contaminations: + 345% of hospitalizations in two weeks.
It is almost three times more than in France.
Comprehensive intensive care
We are very far from the situation of this spring, when Swiss hospitals received patients from overwhelmed French hospitals.
In the canton of Jura, intensive care at the hospital is now complete.
“
It is also the hospital, which risks being impacted, which risks being under water, which risks no longer being able to cope.
We may have to take charge of intensive care and this is not acceptable for a rich society like ours,
”said Nicolas Petremand, the head of public health in the canton.
For the Swiss daily La Liberté, the cause of this second wave is obvious: the Covid-19 writes the newspaper, took advantage of the federalist reflex of the government which left the local authorities to manage the pandemic.
This explains why the discotheques were still open a few days ago in some cantons when others made the mask compulsory even outside.
The government has since tried to harmonize the measures.
But as in the spring, it has not, for the moment, imposed confinement.
►Also read
: Switzerland: new restrictions across the country where the virus is progressing strongly
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