Covid-19 pandemic: international situation

Global development
The COVID-19 pandemic is the global outbreak of the COVID-19 “coronavirus” respiratory disease. On 31 December 2019, an outbreak of a new type of pneumonia with an unknown cause at the time was confirmed in Wuhan, China. In January 2020, the disease became an epidemic in China and WHO officially declared the former epidemic a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The disease is caused when people are infected with the previously unknown coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. As the pandemic progressed, public life and the private life of many citizens was hugely affected in numerous countries around the world. The overall societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic include the 2020 economic crisis.
On 13 January 2020, the first coronavirus infection confirmed in a laboratory outside of China occurred in Thailand, while the first outside of Asia was discovered in the United States on 23 January 2020. Both cases were connected to travel to or from Wuhan. The first coronavirus-related death outside of China was registered in the Philippines at the beginning of February 2020. On 15 February 2020, a Chinese tourist died in France; this was the first victim of the COVID-19 pandemic outside of Asia and on 23 February 2020, the first two European victims died in Italy. By mid-March 2020, most of the cases were in China, Italy, Spain, Iran, Germany, France, and the US; while only a few new infections were reported from China. By the end of March 2020, the number of cases surged in the US making it a hotspot for the global COVID-19 pandemic alongside Europe and China. In May and June 2020, Latin America became the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic with Brazil, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia affected especially badly and at the end of August 2020, India recorded the highest number of new infections worldwide in one day for the first time. A surge in cases was recorded in Europe in September 2020 and this is increasing steadily. This was dubbed the second wave. By contrast, the US third wave began soon after this. Both waves were described as significantly more aggressive.

The situation in Switzerland
The number of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 started to rise quickly, first of all in the Canton of Ticino. Despite initial measures, it was not possible to prevent an outbreak of the disease. On 28 February 2020, the Swiss Federal Council designated the situation in Switzerland as a “special situation” under the Epidemics Act and passed the Ordinance on Measures to Combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19), which banned large events with more than 1,000 people, among other measures. Due to the continued increase in the number of cases, the Federal Council declared an “extraordinary situation” (highest danger level) in accordance with the Epidemics Act as early as 16 March 2020. Under this new ordinance, public life was significantly restricted as all non-essential stores and services had to close with immediate effect. Although a large number of these emergency measures were lifted on 11 May 2020, the Federal Council did not allow events with more than 1,000 people to take place again until the end of August.
It was the first time that the Federal Council had imposed emergency law for an extended period since the Second World War. The powers in accordance with Art. 185 of the Swiss Federal Constitution allow the national government to decide directly what it deems necessary to “counter severe threats to public order or internal or external security”. The Federal Council can thus act without involving parliament, the cantons or the people.