Switzerland could be the next European country to lift virtually all COVID restrictions, federal officials said Wednesday – despite warnings from the World Health Organization, headquartered in Geneva, that a total relaxation of the pandemic rules could be premature.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Swiss federal government officials lifted all work-from-home and some quarantine requirements as of Thusday, and said they were considering a complete lifting of mask mandates, vacccine certificate requirements and other measures by 17 February.

The other option would be to take a two-phase approach to the relaxation, government officials said. This would lift requirements for vaccine certificates to enter restaurants and other leisure and cultural venues, but maintain a “2-G” (two vaccine dose) requirement for entry to indoor pools, discotheques, and other similar venues.

The government said that it would undertake a series of consultations with Cantonal authorities in the coming two weeks to decide whether to remove the domestic restrictions all in one go – or in two stages.

Additionally, the government said it would propose the lifting of all restrictions on entry into Switzerland, including requirements for vaccine passports, testing, and the collection of contact data.

“Today is a beautiful day – and not only because of the weather. Today is a great day. It marks the beginning of a new phase in this long and difficult crisis,” declared Ignazio Cassis, president of the Swiss Federal Council, in a press conference, speaking in Italian, French and German.  “The pandemic is not entirely behind us, but the Federal Council is very pleased to see light on the horizon.”

He spoke even as Swiss reports of confirmed new COVID cases remain among the highest in Europe, although there are signs of a plateau in just the past couple of days.

Premature to declare victory or surrender’

Two hours away in Geneva, at a WHO press briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus appealed to countries to move gradually in relaxing restrictions. He noted that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2 had caused 90 million infections in just the past 10 weeks – more than all of the cases recorded in 2021.

“It is premature for any country either to surrender or to declare victory,” Tedros said. “This virus is dangerous and it continues to evolve,” he warned, noting the evolution of yet new Omicron sub-variants in Europe as well as India.

With deaths in four of the WHO’s six regions increasing over the past week “now is not the time to lift everything all at once,” cautioned Dr Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s lead on COVID-19, cautioned Tuesday.

In Europe at least, more and more countries seem to be disregarding those WHO warnings. 

Last week, Denmark lifted most COVID-19 restrictions despite registering over 40,000 new cases daily, with France, Norway, Finland and Sweden among the other European countries following suit or poised to do so.  

Swiss moves could be among the most far-reaching

However, Switzerland’s moves, if made all at once in just two weeks, could be among the most far-reaching yet on the European continent.

In his briefing, Cassis credited the relaxation to a successful vaccination campaign – although in fact, Swiss vaccine rates also remain somewhat below the average of other comparably high-income European countries.

“We can enter this new phase thanks to the vaccination,” Cassis said. “This has contributed to a much more favorable epidemiological evolution [of the virus].”

While the Omicron variant has infected a very large numbers of people “its repercussions had been much lighter” with a significant reduction in hospitalization rates, as in other countries, Cassis added.

Thanks to that, as well, “we can envisage the future with optimism. A new phase is beginning and we will soon be able to recover all of our liberties – while also living with one more virus.”

Asked for a comment on the planned Swiss measures, WHO not had not responded at the time of publication.

See related Health Policy Watch story:

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/as-denmark-scraps-covid-restrictions-who-urges-caution/

Image Credits: HP-Watch/Svet Lustig Vijay.