End of severe shortage of antibiotics and vaccines in Switzerland; Zurich SVP calls for German language test before school enrollment; plus other news in our Tuesday roundup.
End of severe shortage of antibiotics and vaccines in Switzerland
The shortage is now over and the supply as well as reserves have been almost entirely replenished, the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) announced on Monday.
That is a positive development, but the news is not all good: While the situation has returned to normal for antibiotics and vaccines, medicines as a whole continue to be affected by supply problems.
Dozens of products remain partially or completely unavailable.
According to FONES, this situation is due to multiple factors, including the relocation of production to low-wage countries, and a heavy reliance on a handful of production sites in Asia.
Zurich SVP calls for German language test before school enrollment
The proposal is part of a package of initiatives on immigration that the party plans to submit to the Zurich parliament soon. The initiatives aim to combat the consequences of the “immigration crisis.” according to the SVP.
To assess German language proficiency, the party is calling for standardised tests across the canton. Foreign children who do not reach the required level would be assigned to special ‘German as a Second Language‘ (GSL) classes. Once they reach the minimum level, they would be transferred to a regular class.
The current system assigns children with insufficient German language skills to regular classes, slowing down the educational process for other students, the SVP claims.
READ MORE: Do foreign children ‘have a negative impact’ on standard of Swiss schools?
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Child traffickers recruited by gangs: Switzerland is no exception
Criminal organisations are increasingly recruiting children across Europe – including in Switzerland – for drug trafficking.
While exact numbers are not known, Regula Bernhard-Hug, director of Child Protection Switzerland, said recruitment is done through fake contests circulating on Instagram and TikTok to obtain phone numbers of young people. Once contact is established, recruiters move the conversations to private messaging.
The federal police (Fedpol), expects an increase in situations where minors in Switzerland are used for drug trafficking.
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At last: German trains are becoming significantly more punctual thanks to Swiss assistance
For a long time, Deutsche Bahn’s Stuttgart to Zurich train was considered a problem route in terms of both punctuality and reliability.
However, with the SBB timetable change in December, every other train from Stuttgart now terminates in Singen, just north of the Swiss border.
From there, the journey continues into Switzerland on the SBB; from there, the train runs according to schedule and arrives in Zurich (mostly) on time.
“The measures taken are proving effective,” the two companies said in a joint statement.
The average arrival punctuality in Zurich has since increased to over 80 percent
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