Two more cantons to start vaccinating people from the age of 16
Fribourg and Neuchâtel announced that everyone ages 16 and up can get vaccinated from May 8th and 10th, respectively.
They are joining two other French-speaking cantons, Jura and Valais, which have also opened their vaccination programme to these age groups.
They will receive the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, the only one approved for use in this age category.
While many cantons are allowing anyone 16 and up to register for the vaccine, most are still vaccinating older groups.
Here you can see what age categories your canton is inoculating right now.
Employee exchange programme combats labour shortage
The shortage of skilled labour has proven to be a problem for a Valais-based company, Lonza, which manufactures one of the active ingredients in the Moderna vaccine.
Now Switzerland’s biotech sector has implemented a system to prevent certain companies from shutting down their facilities due to shortage of workers: an employee exchange platform.
The Inartis foundation is helping businesses which don’t have enough workforce due to quarantine or other factors, to “borrow” employees with similar skills from other companies.
These workers are temporarily moved from one company to another to fill the shortage.
READ MORE: How Switzerland’s strict immigration rules might have contributed to slow vaccination rollout
Migros the favourite supermarket chain in Switzerland
When it comes to grocery shopping, 47 percent of consumers favour Migros, according to a survey carried out by a market research institute Marketagent Schweiz.
Coop lags behind, with only 27 percent of respondents preferring to shop there.
German discounters Lidl and Aldi, received only 9 percent and 7 percent of votes, respectively, but both are ahead of Denner , where 6 percent of respondents like to shop.
Border closures inspire a new art exhibit
On March 16th, 2020, the Federal Council declared the state of emergency and shut all of Switzerland’s borders, mobilising about 8,000 soldiers to support the border guards.
This somber period is documented in Extra-Ordinaire, a virtual exhibition set up by the Swiss Customs Museum.
“Everyone has experienced this in a different way. The exhibition is therefore a historical document intended for posterity to preserve some of these stories and present the pandemic from our point of view”, said the museum’s director, Maria Moser-Menna.
The exhibition is optimised for mobile phones and computers. It can also be seen at the Customs Museum, located in Gandria (TI) and open until October.
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