Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland

People relaxing by a lake

People enjoying the spring weather by lake Zurich. Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Switzerland has further relaxed its Covid-19 restrictions, in a context of stabilising infection and hospitalisation rates. The vaccination roll-out is accelerating to over 62,000 jabs a day.

The Swiss government will decide on May 26 whether to ease restrictions further at the end of the month.

If conditions permit, Switzerland would then emerge from a "protection phase" and enter a "stabilisation phase", ministers said on May 12. this would enable restaurants to open indoor seating areas and for the number of people attending public events to be raised.

Vaccination roll-out continues to accelerate (over 62,000 jabs a day, or +21% compared with the previous week). Over 3.2 million Covid-19 doses were administered between late December and may 9, by which time over 12.5% of the population had been fully vaccinated.

More than 10,100 people have died in connection with Covid-19 in Switzerland, which has a population of 8.6 million.

On April 21, the government said the additional relaxation of pandemic measures was unlikely before May 26. This announcement came two days after restaurants and bars were allowed to reopen their outdoor seating areas.

A forgery-proof Covid-19 certificate will be available by the end of June to anyone who has been vaccinated, has recovered from or has recently tested negative for coronavirus.

Rules for entering SwitzerlandExternal link were adapted on February 8. depending on the type of travel, incoming travellers might have to fill out a form, provide proof of a negative test and/or go into quarantine.