Covid: Several schools in Zurich return to distance learning
Several primary and secondary schools in the Swiss canton of Zurich have re-adopted distance learning due to significant increases in Covid numbers forcing teachers into isolation.
Unlike previous orders for students to study from home, these have come about on an ad hoc basis, with too many teachers in isolation for replacements to be found.
Switzerland’s Tages Anzeiger newspaper wrote on Wednesday “the state of emergency is back”.
Impacted schools include the Friedrichsstrasse secondary school in Zurich-Schwamendingen and the Kügeliloo in Zurich-Oerlikon.
In several classes, parents were only notified the day before that they should take care of their children at home.
Switzerland has seen a continued increase in case numbers since relaxing measures in mid-February, although hospitalisations and fatalities remain stable.
The cases have spiked recently in Zurich, which experts believe is to do with bad weather forcing people inside in previous weeks.
The peak of the infection wave is expected to be reached at the end of March, Swiss news outlet Blick reported on Wednesday.
Switzerland is currently planning to phase out the remaining Covid measures at the end of March, provided the epidemiological situation was stable.
Currently, masks must be worn on public transport and those who test positive must isolate for at least five days.
READ MORE: Will Switzerland lift Covid restrictions amid rising infections?
The Federal Council has not yet indicated what the decision will be, even though three members — President Ignazio Cassis, Health Minister Alain Berset, and Minister of Economic Affairs Guy Parmelin — have all recently tested positive to coronavirus.
And Swiss media is reporting that an increasing number of MPs is also infected in the midst of the spring session of the parliament.
“The number of Covid cases literally exploded in the Federal Palace. In two years of the pandemic, never have so many MPs been confined at the same time”, reports Blick.
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Unlike previous orders for students to study from home, these have come about on an ad hoc basis, with too many teachers in isolation for replacements to be found.
Switzerland’s Tages Anzeiger newspaper wrote on Wednesday “the state of emergency is back”.
Impacted schools include the Friedrichsstrasse secondary school in Zurich-Schwamendingen and the Kügeliloo in Zurich-Oerlikon.
In several classes, parents were only notified the day before that they should take care of their children at home.
Switzerland has seen a continued increase in case numbers since relaxing measures in mid-February, although hospitalisations and fatalities remain stable.
The cases have spiked recently in Zurich, which experts believe is to do with bad weather forcing people inside in previous weeks.
The peak of the infection wave is expected to be reached at the end of March, Swiss news outlet Blick reported on Wednesday.
Switzerland is currently planning to phase out the remaining Covid measures at the end of March, provided the epidemiological situation was stable.
Currently, masks must be worn on public transport and those who test positive must isolate for at least five days.
READ MORE: Will Switzerland lift Covid restrictions amid rising infections?
The Federal Council has not yet indicated what the decision will be, even though three members — President Ignazio Cassis, Health Minister Alain Berset, and Minister of Economic Affairs Guy Parmelin — have all recently tested positive to coronavirus.
And Swiss media is reporting that an increasing number of MPs is also infected in the midst of the spring session of the parliament.
“The number of Covid cases literally exploded in the Federal Palace. In two years of the pandemic, never have so many MPs been confined at the same time”, reports Blick.
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