Swiss Re is urging its staff to avoid the company's offices as a new variant of COVID-19 surfaces in Switzerland.
The Zurich-based reinsurer on Wednesday raised its recommendation for staff to work from home, a spokesman confirmed to finews.com on Wednesday. «Given rising infection rates in Switzerland and the emergence of new variants, we strongly recommend working from home beginning December 2,» he said in an emailed statement.
Swiss Re is one of the first financial services firms in Switzerland to respond to the spread of omicron, a new variant that was detected in Switzerland for the first time earlier on Wednesday. The Swiss government held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and sent potential new restrictions into consultation with cantons; it is due to convene again on Friday.
Low Inoculation Rate
The reinsurer had also been one of just a handful of firms to ask its employees to attest to either a recent vaccination, convalescence from the illness, or negative test, to their entrance badges. While banks have been keen to have client-facing staff back in offices, insurers are more reticent.
Switzerland, where less than two-thirds of the population is inoculated against the virus, is debating an expansion of COVID-19 certificates indoors or even requiring them for private groups of more than 11 people. The government, which on Sunday won backing for its pandemic measures thus far, said it will seek to distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated employees.
Reporting by York Runne, writing by Katharina Bart
