Pandemic Products

Although one in four Swiss questioned by a Sunday newspaper thinks the border with Italy should be closed because of the coronavirus epidemic, most respondents support the Swiss government’s crisis management and measures.  For example, 76% of those polled by the SonntagsBlick considered the ban on events of more than 1,000 people to be appropriate. In addition, 86% felt that the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) had provided sufficient information about the virus.  The survey, conducted from March 3-6 among 1,074 people across the country, also found that two-thirds felt little or no threat from the virus, 24% classified the risk of Covid-19 as medium, 8% as high. The values had hardly changed compared with the previous week.  Every fourth person was in favour of closing the borders with Italy, which is one of the countries hit hardest by the virus, along with China, South Korea and Iran.  On Sunday Italy ordered a virtual lockdown across a swathe of its wealthy north in …

The office of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Pyongyang has been closed until further notice due to the Asian state’s stringent measures around containing Covid-19. The SDC mission was closed on Monday along with those of France and Germany, and staff are being repatriated, the Reuters agency reported. Confirming the closure of the office, foreign ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told swissinfo.ch that the decision was due to North Korea’s recent closing of its borders in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19. This “considerably impacts” the work of the humanitarian office, he said, and so the decision was taken to repatriate the Swiss members of staff and their companions – four people in total. North Korea has not yet confirmed any cases of coronavirus, but it has ordered foreigners from any country that has reported a case spend 30 days in quarantine. The isolated state is sandwiched between China, where the virus emerged late last …

Fatal mountain accidents decreased by almost 15% last year compared to 2018.  The number dropped from 207 to 177 cases, according to figures released by the Swiss Alpine Club on Monday.   Of the 177 fatal cases, 120 people died while practising mountain sports, 11% fewer than in 2018. Hiking in the mountains claimed the most lives (54), followed by ski touring with 27 cases.  Falls and slips were the main causes of accidents, accounting for 85 fatalities. Avalanches follow closely with 21 fatalities. The vast majority of victims (92) were men.  In terms of risky pursuits off-piste skiing, hunting, canyoning, snowshoe hiking and base jumping saw an increase in the number of fatal cases. Paragliding, mountain biking and via ferrata hiking fatalities decreased, according to the Swiss Alpine Club.   While the weather and mountain conditions were very similar in 2018 and 2019, the summer heat waves were shorter and drought conditions were less pronounced last year. This resulted in …

The Swiss hotel industry could lose out on up to half a billion francs in 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, the boss of the country’s tourism body has said. Martin Nydegger of Switzerland Tourism said on Monday that he expects the virus to account for some 2.1 million fewer overnight stays in Swiss hotels this year compared with 2019, amounting to financial losses of CHF532 million ($574 million). The expected losses, which mirror the dour outlook for many businesses across the world, come after a record tourism year in 2019, which saw just under 40 million overnight stays. “Not everyone will survive this,” Nydegger told the AWP news agency. “Unfortunately, some establishments will be forced to close”. With operating margins are already so low in the sector, he said, even a resurgence of fortunes in good times would not be enough to cover the losses from this crisis. His comments also came on the same day that the Federal Statistical Office released tourism figures for the …

The Swiss stock market suffered extremely heavy losses on Monday due to a combination of coronavirus fears and falling oil prices.    Stock markets around the world plunged on Monday and oil prices tumbled by as much as a third after Saudi Arabia launched a price war with Russia, sending investors already scared by the coronavirus outbreak fleeing for the safety of bonds and the Japanese yen. At the end of Monday, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) had fallen by 5.55% to 9,196.6 points compared to the previous day of trading.  Updated stock market ticker:  “The last ten trading sessions rank among the most tumultuous in history,” UBS analysts said in a market commentary.  “The fear of the coronavirus, which is also paralysing the economy in Europe and the USA, is now also affecting companies,” said the St. Gallen Cantonal Bank in a separate statement. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) said Monday had been the biggest fall on the SMI since 1988 – bigger even than the 9/11 crash.  …

The number of people taking trains in Switzerland has fallen since the outbreak of the coronavirus, resulting in a huge financial hit, Swiss Federal Railways reported on Tuesday. The number of passengers across Switzerland has fallen by 10-20%, while the number of people travelling to Italy has dropped by 90% and those going to France has fallen by 60% compared to before the virus broke out, it said. The Federal Railways is therefore losing CHF500,000 a day, it said. Worldwide, over 114,300 cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in 111 countries and territories, causing the death of 4,026 people, according to a Reuters tally. Switzerland, meanwhile, recorded a third death on Tuesday due to Covid-19, an 80-year-old woman in Ticino. The number of infections crossed the 500 mark on Tuesday. Bumper 2019 The coronavirus news came as the state-owned firm announced record figures for 2019. Last year the Federal Railways carried a total of 1.3 million passengers a day – …

The centrist Christian Democratic Party has handed in signatures to force a national vote on their plan to reduce the cost of health insurance payments in Switzerland. “Our initiative concretely tackles the biggest concern of the Swiss population,” the party wrote in a press release on Tuesday, as it submitted the 119,000 signatures in Bern. The initiative demands that federal and cantonal authorities implement measures whenever health insurance premiums rise faster than the equivalent of 1/5th of the rise in salaries. Such measures could include encouraging more use of generic drugs, taking steps to lower the costs of these generic drugs (they are currently much more expensive in Switzerland than elsewhere) as well as reducing “wastage” and “over-consumption”, the party reckons. The initiative comes just a few weeks after the left-wing Social Democrats handed in signatures for their proposal to tackle high health insurance costs – which they want to legally cap at 10% of …

Swiss pharma giant Roche said on Tuesday it would send all of its 1,200 Spanish employees home starting from Wednesday to work remotely amid the coronavirus outbreak.  “The company will maintain its normal activity and will guarantee, as until now, the supply of medicines to hospitals,” Roche said in a statement. The company made the decision after Spanish authorities ordered to shut down all schools in Madrid on Monday. Twenty-eight people have died in Spain from the coronavirus, with the number of cases jumping on Monday to 1,204, one of the highest in Europe. In Switzerland, where the number of infections crossed the 500 mark on Tuesday, many big firms have encouraged staff to work from home, such as UBS, Credit Suisse, Swisscom and Google. The tech giant, for example, recommends that its 4,000 employees in Switzerland work from home “if their role allows”. However, the Google Zurich office remains open and the situation is continually being reviewed, it says. On February …

With passenger numbers down due to Covid-19, some airlines want authorities to loosen rules maintaining that airport landing slots are lost unless fully used. “Use it or lose it”: regulations state that when an airline is allocated a landing slot, it must use it at least 80% of the time planned, or else risk being stripped of it the following year. As the coronavirus outbreak disrupts travel plans globally and airlines cancel or pare back flights, this is reportedly leading to drastic measures and calls to loosen the rules. Speaking on Swiss public radio RTS on Monday, the Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Alexandre de Juniac, said that his group had asked regulators to waive the rules until October, given the current situation. He was responding to reports – including from The Times – that some planes had been flying with few or no passengers at all in order not to lose out on the valuable slots. According to The Times, British Transport …

Swiss shoppers spent more than CHF10 billion ($11 billion) online last year, an increase of 8.4% from 2018, according to a study of retail habits. Electronics and fashion goods dominated orders. Food accounted for just 2.8% of the total goods consumed (up from 1.8% in 2018), but the report’s authors expect orders to increase this year with people reluctant to go to supermarkets in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Online shoppers predominantly favoured Swiss products, spending CHF8.3 million in domestic online stores compared to CHF2 billion going to foreign competition. At the end of 2018, US online giant Amazon said it would reduce the number of items available in Switzerland due to changes in Swiss value-added tax law. By contract, Switzerland’s largest online store Digitec Galaxus recorded sales of more than CHF1 billion for the first time last year. According to the research, the whole Swiss retail trade turned over CHF91.6 billion in sales last year. Online orders made up …