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Today in Switzerland For Members

Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday

Helena Bachmann
Helena Bachmann - [email protected]
Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
Switzerland's cannabis trial programme is not going to pot. Photo: Shelby Ireland on Unsplash

Less Covid, more pot — find out what's going on today in Switzerland with The Local's short roundup of the news.

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Covid cases in Switzerland keep declining

As weekly figures released on Tuesday by the Federal Office of Public Health  (FOPH) indicate, the downward trend is still continuing: 28,244 new infections have been recorded in the country since April 11th.

By comparison, 40,000 cases had been registered in Switzerland in a span of seven days in the preceding reporting period.

Covid-related ICU admissions remain stable, with 81 patients hospitalised in Switzerland — the same number as last week, but fewer than in March.

Since the beginning of the month, when the remaining coronavirus restrictions had been lifted, FOPH no longer reports daily figures, resorting instead to situation reports issued once a week on Tuesdays.

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Switzerland authorises pilot test for cannabis

The first pilot trial for the controlled supply of cannabis for non-medical purposes will take place in Basel-City, FOPH announced on Tuesday. 

The project’s main objective is to test the sale of cannabis in pharmacies under “strict conditions and …scientific support. The aim is to obtain useful lessons for defining future cannabis legislation”, health authorities said.

Since May 15th, 2021, Switzerland has allowed pilot trials of this kind, stipulating, however, that  they must fulfil strict conditions.

For instance, the study can only include adults whose state of health will have to be constantly monitored. In addition, cannabis products must meet high quality requirements and come from organic farming.

READ MORE: Switzerland to legalise recreational and medical cannabis usage

Homes in border areas set for price rises?

A number of cross-border commuters who work in the Geneva and Vaud area drive quite a distance to their jobs in Switzerland. Given the increasing price of petrol, this daily to-and-from trek is having an impact on their monthly transport costs.

For this reason, some cross-border workers “could be tempted to move from their current location to another, closer to the Franco-Swiss border”, according to a report in Tribune de Genève.

As a result of this new trend, the price of real estate in proximity to the Swiss border in certain regions of Ain, Haute-Savoie and Savoie — that is, the greater Geneva  area — could be affected in terms of sales and prices.

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Kyiv doesn’t like Lucerne’s accommodations for Ukrainian refugees

The canton decided to put up the refugees in underground civil protection facilities, which local officials say promote a sense of community, as co-habitants speak the same language and have had similar experiences fleeing the war.

However, the Ukrainian government issued a statement expressing its displeasure with this type of accommodation.

Tetiana Lomakina, who is responsible for setting up humanitarian corridors for Ukrainian refugees, complained that mass housing of this kind should be scrapped in favour of accommodations in private households.

“In this way, our citizens can feel safe and recover from the horrors of war, often marked by long days and nights spent in air raid shelters where they feared for their lives”, Lomakina pointed out.

To date, about 36,000 people who fled Ukraine have arrived in Switzerland; 29,203 of them already obtained protection status S, according to State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

READ MORE: Switzerland’s special ‘S permit’ visa program: What Ukrainians need to know

If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected]

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