Monkeypox Arrives In Basel; Payments Glitch Continues; Bomb Scare At Basel EuroAirport

News For 7 June 2022

Last Friday, the Basel Stadt Health Department released a statement that the first case of Monkeypox had been identified.  The patient appears to have contracted disease in Europe and is being held in isolation as he recovers and contact tracing has been implemented.  Monkeypox was first identified in Switzerland in late May in Bern and subsequently in Geneva and Zürich.  Globally, the World Health Organization estimates there are 250 cases so far, but does not expect a pandemic on the scale of Covid19.  People who suspect they are ill with Monkeypox are encouraged to isolate and seek medical assistance, but no quarantine rules are in place.

**********

A few weeks ago we reported that clients of Basler Kantonal Bank and Bank Cler were unable to use their smartphone apps to pay for a few days.  The inconveniences with electronic payments continued last week, when clients of Migros and Coop were unable to complete their transactions using the electronic payment terminals at most stores starting at noon.  Although service was restored after an hour, those with limited time during the lunch hour had to abandon their purchases.

**********

On Sunday, a piece of unattended luggage caused a bomb scare which led to an evacuation of the terminals at Basel's EuroAirport.  As a result of the disruption, no departures or arrivals were possible for almost 2 hours.  It seems someone either forgot or purposely left a piece of luggage unattended long enough to cause an alarm.  Doing so, carries a minimum 450 Euro fine.