Sam Jones 

More than 60 prominent Swiss economists have added their names to an open letter urging the government to rethink its coronavirus strategy and impose a nationwide lockdown as Covid-19 cases across the country soar.

Bern has repeatedly said it has no intention of reinstating tough restrictions on public life. But as a result, the wealthy alpine state, with its reputation for efficiency and order, faces one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the world.

The new signatories were added to the letter, posted online last week, warning the Swiss economy will be just as hard hit by keeping shops and restaurants open — and allowing infections to rise — as it would be by a second lockdown.

“There seems to be a pervasive misunderstanding regarding the economics of Covid-19,” it stated. The latest data from the Federal Office of Public Health show 1,148 cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. New infections are greater than those in the US or the UK and second only to the Czech Republic in continental Europe.

The situation is particularly stark given that Switzerland’s handling of the first wave was viewed by many — not least by the Swiss themselves, as polls in the summer showed — as having been exemplary.

“The numbers are just hallucinatory,” said Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at the Graduate Institute on Geneva and one of the early signatories of the open letter. “Literally in one month, October, Switzerland went from being significantly better than the US to three times worse.” 

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