From Monday, Switzerland’s hospitals will be allowed to restart non-urgent operations as the federal government’s relaxes restrictions put in place to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 virus, according to RTS.
There are currently around 1,300 Covid-19 patients in Switzerland’s hospitals, of which around 200 are in intensive care. This number is less than half the early-April coronavirus peak when there were nearly 2,400 people hospitalised with Covid-19.
Thousands of non-urgent medical interventions were rescheduled to allow hospitals to focus on the surge of Covid-19 patients. In Geneva, around 1,500 procedures have been put on hold. The figures in Lausanne and Valais are around 500 and 750.
Philippe Eckert, the boss at the CHUV hospital in Lausanne, said he expects the hospital to be able to go back to operating at 75% of its normal level.
Hospitals will restart normal operations progressively. Time is needed to reorganise and to allow staff that have been busy with coronavirus patients to rest.
In addition, plans need to be drawn up to deal with the second pandemic peak that could develop in the months to come, said Eckert.
More on this:
RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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