More remote working, fewer events
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.
As already announced in Internal news at the start of this week, ETH is updating its coronavirus master plan in response to new rules announced by the Federal Council. These measures come into force on Monday 6 December. The new master plan will be updated over the course of the week and published on the Coronavirus website.
Remote working recommended again
In accordance with the Federal Council’s ruling, the Executive Board recommends that all staff in the university’s academic departments and central administrative units should work from home again wherever feasible in operational terms. If working on site helps someone to work in an efficient and motivated way, they can still come to ETH. “Despite the challenging overall conditions, teams should get together occasionally in order to maintain social contact and foster professional collaboration,” stresses Ulrich Weidmann, head of ETH Zurich’s Covid-19 Crisis Management team. The Executive Board has introduced an emergency measure requiring everyone who works on campus to wear a face mask indoors as of 1 December.
Exercising restraint at events
Events can still be held indoors, but only those with a Covid certificate (3G rule: vaccinated, recovered, or tested) may attend. Food and drink may only be consumed indoors while seated. The gastronomy services at ETH are primarily available for this purpose. As already communicated, the Executive Board is urging everyone to exercise restraint as a general rule when organising social events, especially those held indoors.
Regular testing
Given the exponential rise in the number of Covid cases, the Executive Board is also calling on all ETH members who are already vaccinated to get tested once a week, if possible. ETH provides PCR saliva tests for this purpose, as part of the CovMass programme. Before Christmas, the university plans to open an additional CovMass station at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) in Basel.
Classroom teaching has top priority
Teaching can mostly continue in person, as before, during the last three weeks of the Autumn Semester. End-of-semester examinations will take place either remotely or on site. Lecturers will inform students in good time about arrangements for sitting exams. Students must attend end-of-session examinations in person. The Executive Board is confident that these can take place in person, under the same rigorous safety measures as last year. The goal is still to ensure students do not lose a semester.
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