Drunk Driving Sweep Yields Few Arrests; Quake Shakes Basel Region; PCR Test Mandate Creates Travel Uncertainty

News For 14 December 2021

Last week, Basel police carried out random checks of drivers for alcohol and drug intoxication at 70 different locations.  The annual sweep is meant to ensure that those driving during the holidays are fit to operate their vehicles.  In addition, the police say the interventions are meant to deter those that think they can drive while intoxicated, before they start drinking.  Interestingly, one upside to the Coronavirus measures have been to keep more people at home and not socializing - resulting in less driving overall, and subsequently an even lower combination of those that are drinking or consuming drugs socially, and then driving.  As a result, last week's police activities yielded only four people caught driving in an unfit state.  They can expect hefty fines, and to have their driving records reviewed by the public prosecutor.

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If you were awoken by a rumbling last Saturday night, just past midnight - it wasn't your bowels or your noisy neighbor's disco party - turns out a proper earthquake had struck the region.  According to the Swiss Seismological Service based at ETH Zurich, the earthquake was centered around 8 kilometers south of Liestal and measured 3.2 on the Richter scale.  Although earthquakes of this magnitude are generally not known to cause damage, over 300 reports of "something shaking" had been received at the earthquake service's offices.

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The most recent updates to Covid regulations require those entering Switzerland to procure a negative PCR test, indicating that the traveler is virus-free.  While this may seem like an effective solution to control the spread of the virus, it overlooks the possibility that those who have recovered from Covid, may be at low risk of spreading the virus, and yet still "fail" or test "positive" for the virus when taking a PCR test, weeks after recovering. Reacting to this possibility, the guidelines for entry have been modified to allow those meeting 3 criteria to also enter (in addition to those with negative PCR results): Those having had a medically confirmed case of Covid not less than 30 days prior to travel, and also not showing any symptoms of illness, and producing a negative result from a rapid-antigen test that is not less than 24 hours old, will also be allowed to enter Switzerland.