Switzerland experienced a relatively mild first wave of the epidemic compared to those of its European neighbors, but since the fall, the country has experienced a very strong second wave.

The new president of the Swiss Confederation, Guy Parmelin, acknowledged errors in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, in an interview on Sunday with the newspaper Sonntagsblick on Sunday.

“Between July and September we underestimated the situation,” he told the newspaper.

“We thought we could get the virus under control” but “we were far” from getting it, says Parmelin, who took over as president Jan. 1, but he played an important role in health management, as the federal economy minister. A year ago.

Parmelin holds this portfolio during his one-year presidency.

Switzerland experienced a relatively mild first wave of the epidemic compared to those of its European neighbors, but since the fall, the country has experienced a very strong second wave.

For weeks, the Alpine country, with a population of 8.6 million, recorded more than 4,000 new infections a day, and a hundred deaths a day.

Vaccinations have begun in many cantons of the country, but at a slow pace.

In addition, in Switzerland, as in other parts of Europe, the British – the most contagious – variant of the new coronavirus has been detected at least five times.

Parmelin, a member of the right-wing UDC party, stressed that coordination with the cantons, which assume the basics of managing the health crisis, “is not always easy” and that the federal executive has responsibilities to coordinate the fight against the disease.