简体中文
Affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the mortality number in Switzerland has increased 22 percent compared with the previous years over the four weeks between mid-March and mid-April, according to figures released by the Swiss Federal Statistics Office Friday.
The figures showed that in Ticino, the first affected Swiss canton bordering Italy, the deaths have risen by 98 percent, almost doubled than usual.
In the country's Southern canton of Geneva, the deaths increased by 72 percent than the average level of previous years, according to the calculation of local media on Friday.
However, the figures also showed that the number of deaths from all causes did not change much in Switzerland's German-speaking cantons.
Ahead of the country's first phase of measures to relax containment on next Monday, Daniel Koch, delegate of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), called on the public to continue to show a "sense of responsibility" and strictly follow the rules of social distancing and hand hygiene.
"The trend in the number of cases is good, but we do not want it to rise again," Koch told a news conference on Friday.
As of Friday, the country with a population of 8.5 million has reported a total of 28,677 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,309 deaths, according to FOPH.
