Swiss President says vaccine booster shot may soon be available for all

The "Back on Tour" concerts were part of a week-long drive to get more people vaccinated. But in the western Swiss city of Lausanne, for example, only 60 people turned up out of 350 tickets all taken. Anti-vaccination campaigners are suspected of sabotage. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Swiss President Guy Parmelin has drawn a mixed assessment of the national “vaccination” week now drawing to a close.

In an interview on FridayExternal link with public broadcaster RTS, he said he was “sad” that some of the free concerts organised as part of vaccination week had apparently been sabotaged by opponents of government coronavirus policies. “It’s sad for the artists themselves and for people who would have liked to go to the concert, get informed or even take the step of vaccination,” he told RTS.

The week was designed to encourage more of the Swiss population, especially young people, to get the Covid-19 jab. It has included a number of free concerts accessible without a Covid certificate where people could get vaccine information and a jab on-site. In several towns including Lausanne only a few dozen people showed up, whereas all the tickets had been taken online. Media reports suggest that anti-vaccination campaigners snatched them up without intending to use them.

Parmelin nevertheless remained positive. “A certain number of people were vaccinated, perhaps not as many as we would have liked. We will learn from this and see what happens next.” He stressed what he called the “very clear” correlation between vaccination rates and incidence of Covid-19 infection. “Where there has been a lot of vaccination, for example in certain French-speaking cantons, the incidence rate is much lower than in other cantons where the vaccination rate is low,” he said.

Parmelin said the government would continue to review its Covid-19 policy in light of events and new knowledge, as it has done regularly. He pointed out that it has already launched a third vaccine shot for people over 65 and those with weak immune systems, saying this booster might soon be offered to everyone. “I think that the Federal Council will soon be able to take the decision to extend the third vaccination to the entire population if it so wishes,” Parmelin told RTS.