The Covid-19 situation in Switzerland




Over the summer, the pandemic in Switzerland had almost subsided; it's getting more active now again. But life is still more or less back to normal, except for the music festivals (cancelled for this summer) and a mask-wearing obligation in public transport (universally obeyed) and, in some cantons, in shops. Daily number of positive tests are now rising again, and hospitals, where bed numbers (and ventilators and equipment) have been massively increased, are filling up.

Travel to and from Ligerz should not be especially problematic: trains run on time and on the normal schedule, are not much used and people comply with the obligation to wear masks. In Ligerz itself, we all have single rooms, there's good ventilation in the seminar and in the dining room and the seminar room is big enough to keep a 2m (or even 3m) distance between participants.

The Covid-19 situation in Switzerland is concisely summed up on the Covid-19 dashboard Switzerland. Don't be mislead by the "confirmed cases" graph - testing has been greatly expanded in Switzerland -- double-click at the bottom to see the numbers of hospitalised people and of fatalities.

Travel restrictions to and from Switzerland have first been eased a lot and now again much tightened. There is an obligation to quarantine 10 days for people who have been in any of the following countries less than 14 days before their arrival in Switzerland, unless they were only in transit:

The main criterion for inclusion on the list is whether the total number of new (tested) infections per 100'000 people has been higher then 60 during the last 14 days.

If you have been in any of these countries 14 days ahead of your arrival in Switzerland, please cancel your trip.

Commitment pledge: To create a little bit of planning certainty in these difficult times, we pledge that we will hold the workshops in 2020 unless either either we or the conference venue (the Aarbergerhus) are legally obliged to cancel, which we consider extremely improbable. We also guarantee that we will not "move" the meeting to zoom, but hold it among those physically present. We do understand, of course, if participants cannot make firm commitments, will have to decide on a very short-term basis and will perhaps, and perhaps at the last moment, decide or be obliged not to show up.