Switzerland: Industries facing existence threat,Hotels risk bankruptcy

The Swiss government is expected to extend the closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities across the country until the end of February to control high Coronavirus case and death numbers. But industry federation GastroSuisse warned in a statement that if done without providing significant financial support, around half of businesses in the restauration and hospitality sector could go belly-up by the end of March. Nearly half of Switzerland's restaurants and hotels risk bankruptcy within months failing financial support to weather devastating Covid-19 measures. "The very existence of many of them is threatened," GastroSuisse president Casimir Platzer said in the statement.

Restaurants and other businesses quickly received financial support when Switzerland went into partial lockdown during the initial wave of infections, GastroSuisse has complained that support during subsequent sporadic closures has lagged.Before the crisis, more than 80 percent of Swiss restaurants and hotels were in a good or very good position of liquidity, the study showed. But that situation quickly deteriorated.In October, as a second wave of infections picked up steam, the organisation cautioned that 100,000 jobs were at risk. And during the final two months of 2020, nearly 60 percent of restaurant and hotel establishments were forced to conduct layoffs for a second time, it said.

GastroSuisse said the final announcement needed to be accompanied by "immediate and uncomplicated" financial support to the sector to avoid "disaster". Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, is currently registering around 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and had by Friday seen nearly 476,000 cases and 7,545 deaths since the start of the pandemic.