Vaccine Certification Requirement Extended; Fire Alarm Snarls Commute Traffic; Donkey Delivery Debacle

News For 31 August 2021

Requiring Covid 19 Vaccination Certificates has met with broad approval and acceptance throughout Swiss population centers, and especially in the cantons and cities of Zurich, Basel and Geneva.  Most nightclubs, discos and events hosting over 1000 people now require a valid Covid Certificate to be shown at the entrance to the venues.  One canton in particular plans to go one step further, requiring that passengers on public transport also have valid certificates.  Authorities in Graubünden, in south-eastern Switzerland, are contemplating the introduction of a mandatory requirement that passengers have a valid certificate showing they've been vaccinated, have recovered from Covid19 or have recently tested negative for the virus.  Citing concerns for the cantonal health care system to treat the ill in the upcoming flu season, they went on to say that there is no reasonable alternative to testing and vaccination.

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If you happened to be near the SBB last night around the time that workers leave their offices and people start heading home, you probably noticed a great deal of snarled automobile and passenger traffic.  The cause was a fire alarm in the new Baloise Park high-rise building where apparently an electrical fire released smoke and required the intervention of three full-scale fire trucks to be parked in front of the building.  Naturally, this required the diversion of automobile traffic at the worst possible time during a normal commuting and working day.  By the early evening the fire brigade declared the site safe and departed.  The Baloise Park office complex only reopened in 2020 after a 200 million franc construction project saw the old Basel Hilton removed, and in its place a new high-rise go up which will become the headquarters of the Baloise insurance company and will also be the site of the Mövenpick hotel.

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A truck with French license plates attempted to cross the border into Switzerland at the Rheinfelden border crossing between Germany and Switzerland.  During the customs inspection, border guards discovered six live donkeys for which the driver did not possess proper authorization for the import of live animals.  The determined driver however was not dissuaded after having been turned back to Germany, and attempted to cross into Switzerland at the same border 20 minutes later, with the same six donkeys.  This time, the surprised guards called the cantonal Veterinary Services to determine the health of the animals while they determined what to do with the driver.  In the end, the driver was cited for endangering the welfare of animals, having a lack of documentation for the animals origins or destination, and a fine of 1200 francs was levied before, once again, sending the driver, vehicle and the donkeys back to Germany.