From Thursday 27 August 2020, anyone entering a shop or shopping centre in Zurich will be required to wear a mask.
To reduce the risk of a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases the government of the canton of Zurich has introduced compulsory mask wearing in shops, shopping centres and markets.
The latest official Covid-19 figures for the canton, published on 26 August 2020, show 118 new positive cases in the past 24 hours, 19 receiving treatment in hospital, of which 6 are on ventilators, and a total of 141 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Of these total deaths, 83 died in a retirement home, 56 in hospital and 2 at home.
Zurich’s mask wearing rule follows similar rules in the cantons of Vaud, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Basel-City.
In addition to compulsory masks in shops, shopping centres and markets in Zurich, restaurants must record guests’ contact data. In bars and clubs where people are not seated and can move freely, no more than 100 people are allowed to occupy an enclosed space and no more than 200 are allowed to occupy an outdoor space. If there are more people, a distance of 1.5m must be maintained or another form of protection must be in place.
All of the new rules will initially apply until 30 September 2020, according to Zurich’s cantonal government.
With 55 new cases per 100,000 over the last 14 days, the canton of Zurich is close to meeting the figure of 60 per 100,000 required to qualify for Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health’s (FOPH) country risk list.
More on this:
Government information (in German)
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