Swiss Restaurant Guests Are Urged to Leave Contact Info for Virus Tracking

(Bloomberg) -- Swiss restaurants will ask patrons to provide their names and phone numbers in a move designed to track the possible spread of new coronavirus infections when they reopen on Monday after an eight-week shutdown.

Patrons will be handed a questionnaire before any meal to fill in personal details so they an be contacted in case a fellow guest in the restaurant is subsequently diagnosed with the virus, Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset told reporters in Bern on Friday. The data collected will be destroyed after two weeks.

“We are counting on people to take part in this voluntarily,” Berset said. Asked if he had planned to visit a restaurant himself next week, he said his schedule doesn’t allow for it.

The plan permits no more than four people to share a table -- exceptions are granted for families with children -- with a minimum distance of two meters (6 1/2 feet) or a physical partition to the next group of diners.

Swiss schools are due to resume classes on Monday and all non-food shops are allowed to reopen in the second phase of of a three-stage return to normal. In the first stage, hairdressers, garden centers, do-it-yourself stores and tattoo studios reopened last week.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.