In the face of a global food crisis, Erik Fyrwald, the boss of chemicals giant Syngenta, has called for the world to abandon organic farming, reported RTS. The pandemic, extreme weather and the war in Ukraine have pushed the prices of some foods up significantly. Africa and southeast Asia are the regions most exposed to […]
Swiss government adds billions to fight against road noise
Switzerland’s federal government will provide the cantons with an additional CHF 52 billion to cut road noise, reported RTS. The additional CHF 52 billion will be added to an existing funding package of CHF 26 billion. The main source of noise in Switzerland is from road traffic. More than a million people, over 10% of […]
UDC/SVP wants biodiversity reserves farmed to boost Swiss food output
The soaring price of some food staples resulting from the war in Ukraine has stirred concerns in some political corners about Switzerland’s inability to meet its own food requirements. Switzerland imports around half of the food it consumes making it heavily reliant on the rest of the world. Some members of Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP) […]
Average annual healthcare costs hit 9,600 francs in Switzerland in 2020
Statistics published on 26 April 2022 show health expenditure in Switzerland rose to CHF 9,648 (US$ 10,8001) per person in 2020, making Switzerland (probably) the second biggest per-capita healthcare spender in the world – the OECD has not yet published 2020 expenditure for the US, which is typically the world’s highest spender. Healthcare spending rose […]
Geneva hospital opens centre to tackle obesity in Switzerland
Next week, Geneva’s HUG hospital will open a centre focused on adult and child obesity, reported RTS. According to the hospital, people with obesity suffer from a diverse range of illnesses and the new centre aims to bring together treatments for the panopoly of illnesses related to the condition. While obesity is problem that is […]
Covid: 3 jabs needed to cut spread of Omicron, shows Swiss research
Research clearly shows that vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus reduce hospital admissions and deaths and also the risk of long Covid. Recent research by the University of Geneva looks at the impact of vaccines on infectiousness. The research, published on 8 April 2022 in Nature Medicine, looks at the impact of vaccination on the infectious […]
Swiss health insurance could jump by 9% next year
According to the newspaper Le Matin Swiss health insurance premiums could rise by 7% to 9%, reported RTS. The future rise in the cost of health insurance is estimated based on data on the rising healthcare costs being passed on to health insurance companies. According to the data, costs rose during the second half of […]
Kinder chocolates pulled from Swiss shelves over salmonella concern
The chocolate maker Ferrero has asked for its Kinder chocolates to be pulled from Swiss retail shelves over concerns they may contain the bacteria salmonella. Salmonella bacteria, which is typically associated with food contaminated by animal faeces, or by human faeces, such as by a food-service worker at a restaurant, can cause diarrhea, fever and […]
Switzerland drops all Covid restrictions
On 30 March 2022, Switzerland’s government announced the end of all measures aimed at reducing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from 1 April 2022. Currently, the only federal measures left are the requirement to wear masks on public transport and in health facilities and the obligation to self-isolate after infection with the disease. From […]
Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths up again in Switzerland
This week, 184,055 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Switzerland, up 8% from the 171,085 cases reported a week earlier. In addition, the reported number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised jumped. This week 563 were admitted, up 17% from 482 the week before. Reported deaths rose too from 42 last week to 55 this week. Some experts are concerned the […]
