Covid-19 test offensive starts in Switzerland
Schools should carry out repeated tests using pooled saliva samples to improve prevention and detect outbreaks early. Keystone / Alexandra Wey
Rapid Covid self-tests should be available by April 7 in Switzerland. These will be free for everyone, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.
This content was published on March 27, 2021 - 15:25
March 27, 2021 - 15:25
Keystone-SDA/SRF/ts/sm
“We are working with the cantons and the pharmacies to make the appropriate preparations,” Health Minister Alain Berset told Swiss public radio on Saturday, noting that supplies could be short at the start, but that Switzerland is now “a week ahead of schedule”.
Groton The site leader at the Pfizer Inc. labs here says about 200 colleagues locally have been so focused on developing a vaccine to battle COVID-19, it s only now sinking in that they were part of a historic effort over the past year that likely saved millions of lives. I think we re only now starting to reflect, said John Burkhardt, a senior vice president at Pfizer who runs the company s largest research and development center in Groton, in a phone interview March 5. When you re going through this, you get this laser-like focus on delivery.
Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, in a note to company employees that coincided with the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, praised the effort of everyone involved in delivering the world s first vaccine to protect against a disease that has claimed the lives of more than 2 million worldwide and over 500,000 in the United States.
âYou canât test the virus awayâ
Isabella Eckerle at one of the first press conferences on the coronavirus back in January 2020. Keystone / Anthony Anex
As Switzerland embarks on a major test offensive to combat a third Covid-19 wave, virologist Isabella Eckerle of Geneva University Hospitals â an outspoken testing advocate â cautions against treating it as a silver bullet.
This content was published on March 13, 2021 - 11:10
March 13, 2021 - 11:10
Jessica Davis Plüss
Jessica covers the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to big global companies and their impact in Switzerland and abroad. Sheâs always looking for a Swiss connection with her native San Francisco and will happily discuss why her hometown has produced some of the greatest innovations but canât seem to solve its housing crisis.