'Just four percent' of Swiss residents have contracted coronavirus
Just under one in 20 - or four percent - of the Swiss population have been infected with the coronavirus, a study has found.
The relatively low infection rate shows that Switzerland remains vulnerable to a second wave of the virus.
The findings come from a study, completed by ETH Lausanne, which looked at infection data from 12 Swiss cantons.
A total of 3.9 percent of the population is estimated to have been infected, although the rate varies significantly from canton to canton.
READ: What are the latest predictions in Switzerland about a second wave of Covid-19?
Bern’s rate of infection was the lowest in the study, with only 1.9 percent infected with the virus.
Conversely, 16 percent of the population in Ticino have been infected. Ticino, which borders hard-hit northern Italy, has the highest per capita death rate from the virus of any Swiss canton.
Geneva also showed a high rate of infection, with 11 percent of people in the western canton infected.
Photo: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
Mo’ mobility, mo’ problems
Although low rates of infection make a community more vulnerable to a resurgence of the virus, the findings show that mobility rather than immunity was a key factor in its spread.
READ: Switzerland warns against ‘premature' travel to Italy
When lockdown measures were put in place to limit mobility, transmission rates across the cantons dropped from between 50 to 90 percent.
This means that the behaviour of the population is the key factor in the spread of the virus, rather than immunity.
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The relatively low infection rate shows that Switzerland remains vulnerable to a second wave of the virus.
The findings come from a study, completed by ETH Lausanne, which looked at infection data from 12 Swiss cantons.
A total of 3.9 percent of the population is estimated to have been infected, although the rate varies significantly from canton to canton.
READ: What are the latest predictions in Switzerland about a second wave of Covid-19?
Bern’s rate of infection was the lowest in the study, with only 1.9 percent infected with the virus.
Conversely, 16 percent of the population in Ticino have been infected. Ticino, which borders hard-hit northern Italy, has the highest per capita death rate from the virus of any Swiss canton.
Geneva also showed a high rate of infection, with 11 percent of people in the western canton infected.
Photo: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
Mo’ mobility, mo’ problems
Although low rates of infection make a community more vulnerable to a resurgence of the virus, the findings show that mobility rather than immunity was a key factor in its spread.
READ: Switzerland warns against ‘premature' travel to Italy
When lockdown measures were put in place to limit mobility, transmission rates across the cantons dropped from between 50 to 90 percent.
This means that the behaviour of the population is the key factor in the spread of the virus, rather than immunity.
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