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Covid infection rates are rising across Switzerland. But the authorities have not introduced any preventive measures so far. Dr Leonhard Sigel, Occupational Physician at ETH Zurich, gives an update on the current state of play and advice for ETH members on the best way to conduct themselves in this situation.

Now that the Federal Council has ended the special situation, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich is also withdrawing all pandemic regulations with effect from 1 April. It still advises ETH members to wear a face mask – in lecture halls at least – until the Easter break.

In view of the continuously high levels of Coronavirus cases, ETH Zurich will continue to offer almost all of its Covid testing facilities until the end of March.

Do you remember? On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, the very last restaurant door at ETH was closed. This makes us, the members and guests of ETH, as well as our business partners, all the happier to be able to look positively into the future once again. The restaurant operators are very pleased to be able to welcome and serve their guests again in an almost familiar manner.

ETH Zurich is following the Federal Council’s lead and relaxing COVID restrictions: returning to the workplace, eliminating COVID certificate checks and scaling back the mask mandate. The university is adopting a more cautious stance in its relaxation of the rules, however.

The Federal Council has decided to relax coronavirus restrictions. This means that working from home is no longer required for ETH staff, only recommended. Furthermore, it is no longer a requirement to quarantine after being in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19.

On Wednesday, 19 January, the town hall meeting took place, where members of the Executive Board reviewed the past year and looked ahead to 2022. The recording of the Zoom event is now available.

Following the Federal Council’s decision on Wednesday, ETH Zurich will keep the current coronavirus master plan in place.

The Federal Council has decided to halve the duration of quarantine and isolation. The ETH crisis management team recommends that ETH members continue to avoid close contact without a face mask for ten days whenever possible.

Members of ETH Zurich can now take a free rapid antigen test from Monday to Friday on both Zurich campuses. This service supplements the existing CoVMass test services, which should still be prioritised for use going forwards.

As of Monday, all ETH employees will be required to work from home again. Most buildings will only be accessible using an ETH card and will now only be open for academic events. In-person teaching and examination sessions for the Autumn Semester can finish as planned.

Following the latest ruling by the Federal Council, ETH Zurich employees are being asked to spend more time working from home. Food and drink may only be consumed while seated. Classroom teaching will continue to be a priority.

Ulrich Weidmann, head of the internal ETH Covid Crisis Management team, urges further, greater caution in view of the rising number of Covid infections and the newly discovered Omicron variant. From now on, face masks must always be worn indoors, including at all workplaces, with the exception of offices with a sole occupant.

A return to normal occupancy in ETH Zurich offices and laboratories, as long as the 1.5 metre distance rule is respected. To encourage collaboration within and between teams, the Executive Board expects all employees to work on site at least 1-2 days per week in their office, laboratory or workshop.

ETH Zurich will continue offering free COVID tests to students and staff from 1 November onwards. This will allow all members of the ETH community to take part in classroom teaching.

On behalf of the Executive Board, ETH Zurich conducted an anonymous survey about students’ and employees’ vaccination status. The survey ran until 8 October, and the results are now available.

An anonymous survey on the personal vaccination status of students and employees has been running at ETH Zurich for a week. More than half of ETH members have already taken part. The survey will run until this Friday, 8 October.

The changes to the master plan communicated in mid-September have been incorporated in a new master plan under which ETH Zurich will continue to operate Covid test centres up to the end of October and will cover any test costs not borne by the government.

Around 1000 interested people followed the Townhall on the introduction of compulsory COVID certificates. The main focus was on the questions posed by ETH members. The answers can be found in the recording.

The ETH Executive Board has provided more details about the requirement for all those attending in-person teaching events to have a valid COVID certificate.

ETH Zurich is introducing a COVID certificate requirement for the entire study process. This will allow the upcoming Autumn Semester to kick off with a full on-site presence. Details of how this new rule is to be put into practice will follow next week.

The Executive Board is recommending employees to return to their in-person workplaces for one or two days per week. The new coronavirus master plan, which enters into force on 6 September, includes new regulations on certificate and mask requirement.

There have never been so many exhibition booths, lectures and other events as at the seventh edition of the Scientifica science festival. To allow researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich to exchange ideas with the public without any worries, the protection concept includes not only the COVID certificate but also a general requirement to wear face masks indoors.

As things stand, it is difficult to predict how the coronavirus situation will develop, and so the current master plan will remain in force until the exam session ends, says Ulrich Weidmann, head of the ETH Crisis Management team, in the following interview. The master plan is currently being revised ahead of the Autumn Semester due to start in September and will probably be published to coincide with any new measures announced by the Federal Council.

A small jab with a big effect: the new vaccination campaign of the Federal Office of Public Health has been running for a few weeks now. In its support, ETH Zurich is launching its own campaign today, which will run primarily on social media.

The coronavirus situation continues to improve. The Executive Board has eased more restrictions in response to the Federal Council’s latest measures. The main change: wearing a face mask is no longer compulsory outdoors and only necessary indoors in certain circumstances. Events and sports activities are also possible again on a larger scale.

The pandemic has changed many things - including the ways scientific staff communicate with each other. The "zoom-isation" of exchange opportunities has expanded networking and integration possibilities and supported a cultural change, say Rosa Visscher, Linda Wehner, Florentine Veenstra and Konstantinos Voulpiotis of the Scientific Staff Association AVETH.

Following the latest decisions by the Federal Council, the requirement for ETH employees to work remotely from home is being cautiously relaxed. The university’s own testing programme launched back in April has made this possible.

The coronavirus has turned our lives upside down for over a year now. Restaurants at ETH Zurich have also had to deal with massive changes. We checked in with the two biggest restaurant operators on campus to find out what they have experienced over the past year.

ETH members can now obtain and return saliva PCR test kits on the Hönggerberg campus. Colleagues in Basel, Lugano and Schwerzenbach can also be tested regularly.

The ETH community may now use the Zoom videoconferencing application indefinitely for their work. ETH Zurich has negotiated a solution that incorporates the Canton of Zurich’s data protection recommendations and expands the usage options for ETH students, researchers and staff.

The ETH Executive Board has approved a new coronavirus master plan, effective Monday 26 April. It includes more face-to-face options for students and also allows certain events to be held at the university. The Main Building will now be open at weekends as well.

A week ago, the Federal Council announced numerous easing measures. What these mean for ETH Zurich was explained by members of the Executive Board and the ETH Covid 19 Taskforce at the virtual Townhall. Now the recording of the event is available.

Following the latest easing of restrictions by the Federal Council, ETH Zurich is preparing a new master plan, due to come into effect on Monday 26 April. The ETH Executive Board will provide details of the new arrangements next week.

ETH Zurich is setting up stations for saliva PCR tests where staff and students can be tested free of charge on a regular basis. Testing will start on 20 April, with capacity being increased on an ongoing basis.

The ETH Library in the main builing remains open. In addition, the Architecture and Civil Engineering Library opens as well. All other locations are closed. Our digital offers and services are available to you as usual.

The focus was again on the well-being of ETH members in the third part of the townhall series led by Julia Dannath on 23 February 2021. Mental fitness was the main issue of the virtual event, during which the ALEA Award was also presented and the three nominees were recognised for their progressive leadership at ETH.

Following the Federal Council’s decision on Wednesday, the Executive Board has approved a new coronavirus master plan for the university, effective 1 March 2021. The ETH Library and the Graphische Sammlung will be open, along with the Main Building, and now also the HIL building on Hönggerberg campus.  

The second instalment of the new townhall series “Well-being in challenging times”, organised by the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off on 29 January. This time around, the subject is physical fitness. During the virtual event, Dannath and the other participants discussed how important exercise is to our well-being.

Brothers Gabriel (20) and Rafael Sonderegger (22), both mechanical engineering students at ETH, founded their start-up Sondia in Schaffhausen during the first wave of the pandemic last spring. They set about producing certified face masks based on the slogan: “Masks from Switzerland, for Switzerland” – a surprisingly successful experience that has taught them a great deal.

Following the latest measures announced by the Federal Council, all ETH members must work remotely from home as of Monday. The only exceptions are for experimental work, workshops or other activities requiring on-site presence. University buildings will mostly be closed, with a few exceptions. The exam session is still going ahead as planned from 25 January onwards, with some exams sat in person.

The coronavirus has flipped ETH Zurich’s working and teaching life on its head. Before the second wave hit, we asked ETH members how this extraordinary year has been for them and what they hope will come out of it.

The new Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off a new town hall series on 8 December that focused on personal well-being and social fitness. Around a thousand ETH employees and doctoral students took part in the live virtual discussion.

3150 ETH members followed the Executive Board's town hall on the new Master Plan live. If you missed the town hall you can now watch the recording.

The ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a new master plan outlining measures designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The most important changes concern teaching, the compulsory wearing of face masks and university events.

In view of the rapid increase in the rate of COVID-19 infections, the Executive Board has responded to advice from the ETH COVID task force by tightening the measures for combating the spread of the virus at ETH Zurich. The face mask mandate will be extended further, drinks receptions and other social events are generally no longer allowed and working from home will once again become the preferred option.

Rector Sarah Springman calls on everyone in the university community to do their part in making sure that ETH Zurich can finish out the Autumn Semester as planned.

VIScon Digital is set to take place in ETH’s main building from 5 to 10 October, and will be streamed online. All ETH employees are invited to attend. The talks, presentations and events will offer insights into current trends in and around the field of computer science, including developments relating to the coronavirus pandemic.

Extended opening hours and services

The background work of the Safety, Security, Health and Environment (SSHE) department is a major reason that ETH Zurich has come through the coronavirus crisis relatively unscathed. Katherine Timmel and Reto Suter discuss the work of the SSHE team and current Covid-19 cases.

All catering outlets at ETH Zurich will reopen again at the start of the semester on 14 September, but they will be subject to additional measures to protect against coronavirus. The caterers have developed a tailored safety concept to keep the risk of infection as low as possible.

Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, concepts that were still in their infancy a few months ago have now become the new normal. In this interview, Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources, speaks about the hectic changeover period, the challenges that have been mastered, and how lockdown has opened up new ways of working.

There's so much to organise and think about when planning an event – especially in the coronavirus era. That includes obtaining the necessary permit to hold the event. Thanks to a new tool called Servix, getting an event approved is now easier than ever.

In the townhall on September 3, the two members of the Executive Board, Ueli Weidmann and Sarah Springman, answered questions from ETH members about the recently enacted regulations.

During the lockdown Antoinette van der Merwe was stuck in South Africa. While she was there, she started a new research project to find out how poor families are coping with the current corona crisis.

Under ETH Zürich’s safety protocol for the Autumn Semester 2020, everyone is required to wear a facemask indoors. Dr Hermann Lehner, head of Academic Services, provides some general background and explains why this practical measure is essential.

No event at ETH must last longer than 1 ¾ hours and drinks parties can only be held in catering facilities or outdoors.

As the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March 2020, students at ETH Zurich founded two online platforms that assigned volunteers to healthcare institutions in need: Students4Hospitals and Care Now. After six months of living with the virus, where are these platforms now?

Since Monday, wearing a facemask as soon as you enter any university building has been compulsory at ETH Zurich. In this interview, Dr Leonhard Sigel, head of the Occupational Medicine and Health Protection section of SSHE at our university, explains why facemasks are a necessary and sensible measure.

More restrictions to be lifted before the start of the semester, but masks are mandatory

From Monday, 24 August, it's "Mask on!" for everyone who travels in ETH buildings. If required, the posters for the campaign can be printed out.

Monday, 31 August sees the start of the next stage of the ETH Master Plan for restart, which mainly concerns the Autumn Semester 2020 and will last up to the end of the year. To keep the risk of coronavirus spreading as low as possible, everyone will be required to wear a facemask as soon as they enter any ETH building. This measure already applies from 24 August.

Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, things that were mostly unpopular a few months ago now seem to be the way of the future. Rui Brandao, Director of IT Services, tells us about his experience under emergency operations, how he's preparing for what comes next, and which aspects of the lockdown are here to stay.

After 16 years as head of Academic Services, Dieter Wüest recently handed over leadership of the department to Hermann Lehner, previously a senior scientist with a focus on education in the Department of Computer Science. We spoke to both of them about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on teaching, and about their specific projects and visions for the future.

What has life in lockdown been like for ETH members? And what lessons can we learn for the future of our work? Professor Gudela Grote conducted a large-scale survey to look into these questions.

With every passing week, new coronavirus infections are reaching record highs around the world. However, ETH's master plan is allowing for more restrictions to be relaxed in the next stage of reopening. Starting in early August, ETH employees will once again have access to all buildings at the university.

To bolster the coronavirus master plan already in place, the ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a plan B containing additional measures in case a second wave of the virus strikes.

Organising session examinations during the coronavirus pandemic is an extraordinary logistical challenge. In August, more than 12,000 students will take these exams. After weeks of intense planning, the Rectorate has published its health and safety concept for exam season.

The coronavirus pandemic has inevitably disrupted the ETH organisational development process "rETHink" as well. ETH President Joël Mesot explains the current status of the project and what he considers to be the major challenges at present.

Jasper Clarysse is a doctoral student at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Now that he’s back in the lab, things are different than they were before the lockdown. In the following video, he talks about his current situation at ETH Zürich.

All passengers using the ETH bus connection between the Zentrum and Hönggerberg campuses must wear a mask from Monday, 6 July.

Signs of life have slowly been returning to the ETH campus since the beginning of June. Since then, the Federal Council has decided to further ease lockdown restrictions. ETH Vice President Ueli Weidmann, head of the university’s COVID-19 task force, tells us what we should expect in the months ahead.

The SwissCovid app is officially available since Thursday 25 June. If you are already using the pilot version, this explains what you need to do if you want to continue using the app.

Alison Hunt works in the Earth Science Department at ETH Zürich. Transitioning from researching in the lab to working from home wasn't easy. However, it also came with new opportunities. In the following Video, Alison Hunt talks about her experience during the emergency operations.

Gunnar Jeschke is the head of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zürich. During the emergency operations, the chemistry building had to be shut down and courses were transferred online. In the following video he talks about his experience during the emergency operations.

Esther Birk works at the Info and Service Center in the main building of ETH Zurich. Normally, people queue up at the counter early in the morning. During the emergency operations it's completely different: it's very quiet. You walk through the main building and hear your own steps. In the following video, Esther Birk talks about her experience.

The rules for remote working at home will be relaxed as of 8 June. In addition, the ETH Library will be open, student workplaces will be available once again on both campuses, and the ASVZ is opening its sports centres. Finally, catering facilities will also be stepped up to cope with increasing demand.

Researchers, laypeople and learning machines are working together to find ways of containing the coronavirus. This is rendered possible by the new Citizen Science Project Builder. This web-based tool for research projects allows volunteers to classify large amounts of image, audio and text data.

ETH members are gradually returning to buildings on the campus. From 8 June especially, there will be increased activity in office buildings and laboratories. So the obvious question is, how best to protect ourselves. We asked the advice of Dr Leonhard Sigel, head of the Occupational Medicine and Health Protection section of SSHE at our university.

For two months, ETH Zurich operated in emergency mode. During this time, the vast majority of buildings, lecture halls, laboratories and offices remained empty. Two photographers visited ETH in April in order to capture a largely deserted campus with only a few people still on site.

Create an ETH coronavirus meme about your experience during the emergency operations and make ETH Zurich laugh a little! The best memes will be published in the next "life" magazine.

In certain exceptional cases, ETH employees can return to their workplaces from 11 May onwards. They may be able to do so on request, but require their supervisor's approval and must observe the rules on physical distancing and hygiene. Measures to ease restrictions have also been brought forward for doctoral examinations.

In mid-March, vocational education and training at ETH Zurich also had to swiftly make the move to distance learning. We took a look at the IT and laboratory technician programmes to find out how trainers and apprentices are coping with the situation.

From 08.06.2020, ETH Library will also be physically open to its customers again – albeit with restrictions due to the necessary protective measures.

Last Friday the Executive Board communicated the master plan setting out how ETH Zurich intends to resume normal operations. At yesterday’s virtual townhall meeting, the Executive Board answered all the relevant questions asked by ETH members.  

The three-month survey on the ETH community’s working situation during the corona crisis has reached its halfway point. We held a virtual chat with Professor Gudela Grute, initiator of the survey, to talk about what the results reveal so far.

The Print and Publish webshop has now produced a number of templates for communicating the emergency operation requirements. This new offering is tailored to the needs of ETH members and is constantly being expanded.

The spread of coronavirus has led ETH Zurich to start operating with emergency measures in place. We asked ETH members about the challenges they are currently facing and how they’re overcoming them.

Pharmacy student Ilario Scapozza is helping out at a pharmacy during the corona crisis. Doing something useful motivates him in these troubled times, and he’s developing skills that will be valuable for his career too.

At last Thursday’s meeting, ETH Zurich’s Executive Board passed the master plan for the university’s gradual return to normal operations and approved the relevant plans for the academic departments and central bodies.

The Rector's directive on teaching measures due to the coronavirus pandemic has been updated to address the upcoming end-of-semester and session examinations. The revised document also covers qualifying examinations for admission to doctoral studies and outlines measures for those performing mandatory military service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicola Rüegsegger and Pascal Wacker are studying computer science at ETH Zurich as a second career path. With their know-how, they helped set up two platforms that help place students and personnel in the most affected hospitals.

All ETH Zurich buildings have been closed. Until further notice, they can only be opened using a key or an ETH employee card and the corresponding access code. As the head of the ET building area in the Facility Management Department, Ruedi Streuli talks about the current situation in the D-​ITET buildings in the campus Zentrum.

In a week’s time, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich will set out the plan for the university’s phasing out of emergency operations and will hold a townhall meeting to explain the details.

Around 1,400 ETH members took part in the virtual information event on Wednesday 15 April, which focused on the new regulations on working hours, holidays and childcare.

ETH Library is offering digital services and delivery of media to members of ETH Zurich during the closing period.

In times of corona, online communication is more crucial for ETH Zurich than ever. But right now, cyberattacks, computer viruses and the like can inflict considerable damage.

Zoom has really taken off, including at ETH. But now media reports have raised some red flags: at issue are data security and protection of privacy. Rui Brandao, Director of IT Services, responds to questions about Zoom and other communication platforms at ETH.

Balancing the individual needs of 10,000 employees with the demands of running ETH Zurich during the current crisis: this was the challenge facing the Executive Board when deciding on the new regulations governing working hours, holidays and childcare.

The Human Resources (HR) Department has drafted special regulations to clarify how the university deals with working hours, holidays and childcare during emergency operations. Vice President Ulrich Weidmann explains the general approach and why the new rules are necessary.