Switzerland will tighten Covid measures amid a worsening situation in the country, the government announced on Friday afternoon.
The measures will apply from Monday, December 20th.
While the Covid certificate will be restricted only to the vaccinated and recovered, the toughest measures forecast last weekend – which included the complete closure of bars, restaurants and events – has been left off the table.
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Under the new rules, only vaccinated and recovered people will be able to access restaurants, cultural, sports and leisure facilities as well as events.
Masks will be required and people must also have an allocated seat.
Clubs, discos and bars without allocated seating will be restricted to vaccinated and recovered people who can also show a recent negative test. This is known as 2G+.
The government has also agreed to cover the costs of testing for the purposes of the Covid certificate. Testing for travel abroad will not be covered by the government.
The entry rules will be relaxed, whereby people only need to show one test on entry (either PCR or antigen). The PCR test can be up to 72 hours old, the antigen test must be less than 24 hours old.
Vaccinated and recovered people do not need to show another test 4-7 days after.
More information about the changes is available at the following link.
READ MORE: Switzerland to relax arrival test rules from Monday
Private meetings will also be restricted. Indoors where at least one unvaccinated person is present, the maximum number of people is ten. Only people aged 16 and over count towards the tally.
If the entire group is vaccinated, the limit is 30 people – and 50 people if the event takes place outside.
Working from home will again be mandatory for everyone who is able to do it.
Not urgent surgeries will be postponed and masks will be required in secondary schools.
The measures are in place until at least January 24th, 2022.
Do the same entry rules apply to the Border areas?
In terms of private meetings indoors, are you sure that children do not count towards the 10 person limit? The SRF website says that children do count.
Hi Praveen, Yes, it relates to people 16 and over. This is spelled out by the government at the following link.
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-86544.html
Great, thank you Daniel. The article needs to be corrected then.
3G, 2G, 2G+, I am seriously worried that we are in a situation where so called modellers claim things without much evidence, which a large fraction of the public believes in, and in the end it will just tear the society apart.
I disagree. It is only government incompetence that will be exposed. All the behavioural data suggests that people are largely supportive of sensible precautions. And those who put their rights to not protect their neighbours first have to live with the consequences of their asocial behaviour.