Swiss Add Voice to View That Endemic Stage of Covid Is in Sight
Swiss Add Voice to View That Endemic Stage of Covid Is In Sight
(Bloomberg) -- Switzerland’s interior minister said the transition from pandemic to a stage where the country learns to live with Covid-19 like the flu may be in sight.
“We may be on the eve of a watershed, the transition from a pandemic phase to an endemic phase,” Alain Berset, whose ministry includes health, said at a media conference Wednesday.
Berset’s comments follow a call by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday to consider treating the crisis differently, given that the omicron wave of infections hasn’t led to an equivalent surge in hospitalizations and deaths. Britain’s Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, told the BBC on Sunday the U.K. is “on a path towards transitioning from pandemic to endemic.”
Berset was speaking at a press conference where the government announced a shorter mandatory quarantine period, mirroring policy changes seen in other countries. He cautioned it was still too early to commit to the endemic phase and a return to normal life.
“The situation remains difficult to predict. Omicron is highly transmissible, but also less dangerous. Maybe omicron is also the beginning of the end -- that we don’t know yet,” he said.
“The tendency is that mutations become less dangerous -- that’s just Darwinism.”
Switzerland, like many other countries, has seen record infections at the start of this year but fewer Covid patients in intensive care beds.
Berset said Switzerland had achieved high immunity rates among the elderly and 20 to 29 year olds, which would allow the virus to circulate like other viruses. That could lessen the chance of more serious mutations, he said.
“Maybe the pandemic will become endemic, with an illness that won’t disappear anymore, but with which we’re able to deal,” he said.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.