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Passers-by in Geneva with mouth and nose protection: "Our message was: It is 5 to 12"
Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi / dpa
The corona numbers in Switzerland have been high for weeks, meanwhile the infections rose faster than in hardly any other European country.
But while strict measures were adopted in France, Greece, Austria or the Czech Republic to break the trend, the Swiss largely let things go their way.
Restaurants, open-plan offices and fitness studios - with masks and protection concepts - are still open, small private celebrations are still allowed, also for financial reasons.
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer declared that one could not afford a “second lockdown”.
The number of new infections in Switzerland is now slowly declining.
Nevertheless, the country's intensive care physicians are sounding the alarm.
At the beginning of the week, the Swiss Society for Intensive Care Medicine (SGI) sent a press release that sounded like a cry for help.
All 876 certified intensive care beds in Switzerland are occupied, and there are corona patients in more than 500 of these beds.
Some recently had to be relocated to a different canton or even a different language region because care was no longer possible in their area.
It is now "of the utmost importance" to contain the pandemic and "postpone non-urgent interventions and treatments across Switzerland in order to prevent loss of quality in intensive care treatment," the letter said.
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Finance Minister Ueli Maurer: Switzerland could not afford a "second lockdown"
Photo: Alex Halada / imago images
In the excitement that followed this announcement, politicians said that everything was - still - in the green: there is a large reserve of non-certified intensive care beds, so that treatment can continue to be guaranteed.
Antje Heise, head of the intensive care unit at Spital Thun and president of the medical profession of the Swiss Society for Intensive Care Medicine, confirmed this in a phone call on Thursday.
But Heise also limits: The non-certified intensive care beds were created at short notice and may not have the same professional support as those that have been certified by the SGI.
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Antje Heise, President of the Medical Association of the Swiss Society for Intensive Care Medicine
Photo: SGI
"I also made more beds for myself on the ward," says Heise.
In terms of infrastructure, this is not a problem: beds and equipment can be found.
However, highly qualified staff are required to provide intensive care to patients.
And this staff has been in short supply for years.
"Occasionally, you can call in people from other stations and areas," says Heise.
"But basically, the more beds I create, the more the quality suffers."
With the publication at the beginning of the week, they wanted to shake up the population and politics and make it clear that the intensive care units are at their limit in many places.
The intensive care doctor says: "Our message was: It is 5 to 12." Does Antje Heise think that Switzerland as a whole needs stricter measures?
“A week ago I would have said personally: Yes, that would be good.
At the moment we are seeing that the number of new infections is going down.
In this respect, I now have the feeling that the protective measures in Switzerland may be enough after all. "
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In fact, the situation in Switzerland has eased somewhat in the past week:
While according to the Federal Office of Public Health
more than 51,000 new infections were registered in the first week of November,
there were just under 40,000 new infections between November 9 and 15.
Switzerland had 455 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
As in Germany, where the incidence is always viewed locally, the cantonal authorities in Switzerland are also free to react with tougher measures if the local situation is particularly critical.
This was the case in the French-speaking west of the country, where in early November there were more than 1,000 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in many places.
The canton of Geneva, for example, declared a state of emergency at the beginning of November, restaurants, hairdressers and fitness studios had to close.
In the meantime, new infections are also falling in Geneva.
Regardless of the slight upward trend: The SGI is serious about your publication.
How serious is shown in the appeal with which the letter ends.
There it says that everyone should consider whether he or she "wants to receive life-prolonging measures in the event of a serious illness" or not.
Antje Heise says that this tip has also caused a stir internationally.
“Actually this is a topic that has been close to our hearts for many years.
We can do a lot more intensive care today than we did 20 years ago - but we have to know whether the patients want that at all. «Her personal observation is that many patients who have dealt with this question would not want maximum therapy for themselves.
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