Switzerland clears Pfizer vaccine, confirms new isolation measures

Switzerland has cleared the Pfizer / BioNTech labs vaccine against the coronavirus, at a time when increasing cases and the arrival of the holidays have led the government to impose new restrictions to mitigate infections. “After careful consideration of the available information, Swissmedic has concluded that the Pfizer / BioNTech covid-19 vaccine is safe and that its benefits outweigh the risks,” the regulator said in a statement.

“We were able to take this decision quickly, while ensuring to respect the three essential conditions: safety, efficiency and quality”, declared the director of the entity, Raimund Bruhin, quoted by the press agency AFP. Switzerland, with 8.6 million inhabitants, has obtained access to 15.8 million doses of vaccines, negotiated with three different laboratories: 3 million with Pfizer-BioNTech, 7.5 million with Moderna and 5.3 million doses with AstraZeneca. Two doses per patient are required for all three vaccines.

The country has recorded 4,000 infections per day in recent weeks and more than 100 deaths every 24 hours. In total, the country has reported 400,000 cases and 6,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The Swiss government announced on Friday new measures to try to contain the pandemic: from December 22 and for a month, restaurants, shopping and sports centers and other places of entertainment will be closed. Instead, stores will remain open but with limited capacity.

Meanwhile, the Swiss government on Friday ordered the closure of all restaurants, bars, and cultural and sporting entertainment venues for a month from next week due to an increase in coronavirus cases. The government said in a statement that the lockdown, which will begin next Tuesday, was necessary because “hospitals and health workers have been under extreme pressure for weeks.”

In addition, “the festive period increases the risk of an even faster growth of cases” because of the family reunion of Christmas and New Year expected in the middle of winter in Europe, adds the note, quoted by the information network of the BBC. The average rate of new coronavirus cases over the past seven days in Switzerland has fallen over the past two weeks from 43 per 100,000 population on December 3 to 50 today, authorities reported. The government also said that the number of people in the stores will be limited, which is to close at 19 on Sundays and on public holidays.

The Alpine country of 8.5 million inhabitants, accumulates more than 400,000 coronavirus infections and more than 6,500 deaths.