ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland began on Wednesday easing its coronavirus pandemic restrictions as fears waned that the spike in infection cases fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant would overwhelm the health care system.
Quarantine rules and a work-from home order will end on Thursday, it said. It proposed further easing measures in consultations with regional authorities to run until February 9. A final decision on how to proceed is due on Feb. 16.
“The government has noted a positive development in the hospitals: despite record high infection figures, there has been no overloading and the occupancy of intensive care units has decreased further,” the government said in a statement.
“The reason for this is probably the high immunity of the population due to vaccination and earlier illnesses,” it added.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is less likely to cause severe cases compared earlier viral variants, it added.
“There are increasing signs that the acute crisis will soon be over and the endemic phase could begin,” the government said,
It would lift the requirement for people who test positive for COVID-19 to go into isolation for five days, saying the high numbers of infections had made the measure lose its importance.
Just over 41,000 new cases were reported in Switzerland on Wednesday, taking the total to 2.29 million cases since the start of the crisis. So far 12,403 people have died from the coronavirus in the country and neighbouring principality Liechtenstein.
(Reporting by Michael Shields and John Revill)
