Early summer could bring end to coronavirus in Switzerland: health official

The coronavirus outbreak could be over by early summer this year in Switzerland, a top Swiss health official told local media on Tuesday.

"We're assuming that this wave will be over by early summer," Daniel Koch, head of the communicable diseases division at the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, was cited as telling reporters on Tuesday.

"We're counting on an epidemic wave that will have not only a swelling aspect, but also one that wanes, and will not last for years, but rather has a visible time horizon," he was quoted by local media Swissinfo as saying.

Last weekend, Koch told media that the current coronavirus situation in the country is not as catastrophic as it might have been.

"The worst-case scenarios which we predicted a few weeks ago have not occurred," he said.

By Tuesday morning, Switzerland, with a population of 8.5 million, had reported 16,176 confirmed coronavirus cases and 373 deaths.