People can build up resistance to coronavirus through vaccination or contracting the virus and recovering from it.
For people who have recovered from the virus, the immunity is believed to last at least six months, with a 12-month duration for the vaccinated.
Proving one’s resistance to coronavirus will become increasingly important with the launch of the so-called Covid-19 Immunity Card.
This card grants special privileges to those who are proven to be immune either through inoculation or recovery, from visiting restaurants to attending events and travelling.
READ MORE: Switzerland promises Covid-19 passport ‘by the summer’
Once you receive your vaccine doses, you will automatically be given a signed vaccination certificate.
This document specifies, among other things, your name, date of birth, when both vaccines were administered and where, along with the trade name, manufacturer, and batch number on the vaccine.
READ MORE: How do you prove you have been vaccinated in Switzerland?
What if you developed your immunity through illness and not vaccination?
Whether you were hospitalised or recovered from Covid at home, the hospital or your canton’s public health officials (and sometimes your doctor) have a record of your illness.
You can request that they issue an official letter certifying that you had been infected with the virus.
The letter should include the date when you were diagnosed and when your recovery was complete.
Usually, that’s the date when health officials release you from your quarantine / isolation — between 10 and 14 days, depending on the canton.
In order to make your status official, you need to visit the following federal website to get a copy of your Covid certificate, which will be sent to you via post.
Once you have received this, you can enter it into Switzerland's Covid app as part of the immunity certificate program.
READ MORE: How to get Switzerland’s Covid-19 health pass
What if you haven’t had any outward signs of a Covid infection, but suspect you had the ‘asymptomatic’ type of coronavirus?
Unfortunately, in Switzerland you need to have either a medical certificate proving you had Covid or a positive PCR test.
This means that you will not be officially deemed to have 'recovered' from the virus.
Antibody tests are not sufficient to prove recovery in Switzerland, unlike in neighbouring countries such as Austria.
Furthermore, evidence of a positive antigen test will also not be sufficient.
More information is available here.
Comments