Swiss Review 6/2020

Swiss Review / November 2020 / No.6 11 The National Council returned to session in September. However, the venerable sur- roundings of the par- liamentary chamber now contain 200 Plex- iglas cabins. Photo: Keystone old that was set by theWorldHealth Organization (WHO) to gauge whether a country has the pandemic under control. The respite was defi- nitely over, as hospitalisations and fatalities also rose. The national COVID-19 Task Force declared that bringing the numbers downwas the “highest priority”. If contact tracing now,” admitted Berset. The fin- ger-pointing began. Switzerland’s de- centralised, federal system was not equipped for the pandemic. Voices in- side and outside parliament called on the government to intervene and take charge of the situation. Certainly, the cantons applied the face covering re- quirement in a rather hotchpotch But this actually had the effect of di- luting the overall message to the pub- lic. The federal government and can- tons called on people to adhere strictly to the rules to avoid a second lock- down. “It is five to midnight again,” warned Sommaruga. Uncertainty reigned again long beforewinter’s first snowfall. People could maybe cele- became impossible, there was no knowing how quickly the virus would spread. Lack of data The number of infections was ex- pected to increase as temperatures dropped, given that people would spendmore time indoors. But somany cases so soon? How could that have happened to Switzerland, a country that had managed so well thus far? “We areworse off than other countries fashion across the country. The for- warding of track-and-trace data to the government could also have been han- dled better. As a result, experts had no access to the data that would have al- lowed them to find out where people were contracting the virus. A cavalier attitude also crept in among certain sections of the popula- tion. It was as if people had only lis- tened to the secondword of Simonetta Sommaruga’s “new normality”. Scien- tists also made various statements – and were perfectly entitled to do so. brate Christmas together in the forest, as they used to do as scouts, suggested epidemiologist Marcel Tanner. This article covers developments up to the time of going to press in mid-October. Up-to-date reports from the Swiss COVID-19 Task Force are available online in three languages at: www.ncs-tf.ch