Holiday Travel Covid Awareness; Kinder Eggs Pulled From Shelves; Baby Bumper Crop

News For 12 April 2022

After two years of Coronavirus pandemic mandates, with a few exceptions, Switzerland lifted all of its mask-wearing mandates as of April 1.  Now with the arrival of warm weather and the holidays many are gearing up for travel around the country and abroad - taking advantage of Switzerland's central European location.  However, medical experts, and travel advisors warn against assuming that travel has returned to "normal".  Many countries, including bordering neighbors of Switzerland and popular tourist destinations, require Covid vaccination certificates for entry.  In addition, mask mandates are still also enforced during travel and arrival in most countries in Europe. So what should you do, if you've "got the travel bug"? Most countries now maintain traveller advice websites which should always be consulted prior to departure in order to procure paperwork, tests, and necessary vaccinations.

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The Italian chocolate maker Ferrero asked its retail partners to remove its famed Kinder Eggs product from their shelves last week.  The recall is related to a European outbreak of approximately 100 cases of Salmonella.  The products affected are Kinder Eggs, Kinder Surprise Eggs, and Schokobons and were produced at a Belgian factory owned by the company.  It appears the most serious cases fortunately ended with a bad tummy ache, and no cases of Salmonella poisoning were reported in Switzerland.

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For 2021, the latest year for which statistics are available, Switzerland recorded almost 90,000 births - the highest rate since the early 1970s. Year-over-year, the births represent a 4% increase over the prior year - 2020.  Population experts ascribe the increase in births to two factors: Couples spending more time at home during the pandemic peak in 2020, and that younger people that would have left Switzerland were unable to because of the pandemic.