Switzerland Unveils Plan to Reopen Schools and Businesses
Switzerland to Allow Businesses and Schools to Reopen Gradually
(Bloomberg) --
Switzerland is planing to slowly return to normal life by reopening businesses and schools shuttered because of the pandemic from late April, a proposal deemed “lacking in courage” by the country’s largest political party.
Establishments like hair dressers, tattoo studios, beauty salons, hardware stores, garden centers and flower shops, where people can keep a safe distance, will be allowed to operate as of April 27. Hospitals will also be authorized to offer their full range of medical services, the government said on Thursday.
“The spread of the coronavirus was slowed and our hospitals are currently not overburdened,” Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said at a press conference in Bern.
In the second stage, starting May 11, schools, other non-food retailers and markets will reopen, while for museums, libraries, and zoos the date is June 8.
Yet the fate of restaurants and fitness studios remains unclear, and the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP, the largest in parliament with two ministers in the seven-strong cabinet, responded to Thursday’s announcement with a damning verdict.
The ultra-conservative SVP is “aghast at the government’s cowardly strategy,” it said in a statement. “Rather than improving testing capacity, acquiring enough masks or improving contact tracing via an app, to allow people in Switzerland to get back to work as quickly as possible, it increases the harm” for the economy.
Although the World Health Organization, which has spearheaded the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, is based in Geneva, the Swiss government has been slow to fully embrace its recommendations on contact tracing. Testing was ramped up only in recent weeks.
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