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Coronavirus in Switzerland: How to support small businesses

Small and medium-sized business in Switzerland have felt the heaviest brunt of the coronavirus. A number of platforms have since emerged to help out.

Published: 8 April 2020 11:47 CEST
Coronavirus in Switzerland: How to support small businesses
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

While supermarkets, streaming platforms and online retailers have been some of the few to benefit out of the coronavirus crisis, smaller businesses have been heavily hit. 

Despite the Swiss government making CHF20 million available in loans for small businesses – which has since been doubled to CHF40 million – many are uncertain if they will be able to survive the coronavirus. 

Switzerland doubles emergency coronavirus loan fund for small businesses 

Several platforms have sprung up online to link customers with smaller retailers in need of their support. 

Some retailers offer delivery, while others sell vouchers – for everything from movie tickets to cocktails – which can be redeemed when coronavirus restrictions are lifted. 

Links to these intermediary sites have been listed as follows. 

Besides providing listings of companies, small businesses can also sign up to have their company listed. 

English Forum Switzerland (in partnership with The Local)

The following are available in German: 

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Mitenand 

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Wir Sind Luzern (Lucerne)

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Hi,
 
The Local's mission is to give our readers all the information they need about what's happening in Switzerland. We rely on paying members to do that, but we have chosen not to put any of our articles about the coronavirus behind our hard paywall, to help keep all of our readers informed. We believe it is the right thing to do at this time.
 
This means that new or occasional readers can read articles for free. On urgent need-to-know articles and official advice about coronavirus, we are also dropping the paywall completely. That includes this article. 
 
We have received many comments from supportive readers asking how can they contribute. The best way is simply to sign up as a member. You can do that in just a few moments by clicking HERE.
 
We hope our paying members understand why we have chosen to make these articles about the coronavirus free for everyone, but if you have any questions, please let me know.
 
As for the coronavirus, you can read all our articles here.
 
Kind regards,
 
Dan,
 
Editor, The Local Switzerland

 

 

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HEALTH

WHO says European festivals should go ahead despite monkeypox risk

Most new cases of monkeypox are currently detected in Western Europe. The World Health Organisation says this is no reason to cancel more than 800 festivals scheduled to take place on the continent this summer.

Published: 25 June 2022 12:37 CEST
WHO says European festivals should go ahead despite monkeypox risk

The World Health Organization said Friday that European summer festivals should not be cancelled due to the monkeypox outbreak but should instead manage the risk of amplifying the virus.

A surge of monkeypox cases has been detected since May outside of the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

Most of the new cases have been in Western Europe.

More than 3,200 confirmed cases and one death have now been reported to the WHO from 48 countries in total this year.

“We have all the summer festivals, concerts and many other events just starting in the northern hemisphere,” Amaia Artazcoz, the WHO’s mass gatherings technical officer, told a webinar entitled “Monkeypox outbreak and mass gatherings: Protecting yourself at festivals and parties”.

The events “may represent a conducive environment for transmission”, she said.

“These gatherings have really close proximity and usually for a prolonged period of time, and also a lot of frequent interactions among people,” Artazcoz explained.

“Nevertheless… we are not recommending postponing or cancelling any of the events in the areas where monkeypox cases have been identified.”

Sarah Tyler, the senior communications consultant on health emergencies at WHO Europe, said there were going to be more than 800 festivals in the region, bringing together hundreds of thousands of people from different countries.

“Most attendees are highly mobile and sexually active and a number of them will have intimate skin-to-skin contact at or around these events,” she said.

“Some may also have multiple sexual contacts, including new or anonymous partners. Without action, we risk seeing a surge in monkeypox cases in Europe this summer.”

Risk awareness

The UN health agency recommends that countries identify events most likely to be associated with the risk of monkeypox transmission.

The WHO urged festival organisers to raise awareness through effective communication, detect cases early, stop transmission and protect people at risk.

The outbreak in newly-affected countries is primarily among men who have sex with men, and who have reported recent sex with new or multiple partners, according to the WHO.

People with symptoms are advised to avoid attending gatherings, while people in communities among whom monkeypox has been found to occur more frequently than in the general population should exercise particular caution, it says.

The normal initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash.

Meg Doherty, from the global HIV, hepatitis and sexually-transmitted infection programmes at WHO, said: “We are not calling this a sexually-transmitted infection.

“Stigmatising never helps in a disease outbreak,” she added.

“This is not a gay disease. However, we want people to be aware of what the risks are.”

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