At the beginning of January, the vaccination truck stopped again in Saanen. Already half an hour before it opened, a queue formed on Monday morning. Around lunchtime, the queue stretched all the way to the railway crossing. The waiting time stretched to a maximum of three hours. On the second day, the crowd was somewhat smaller and the queue correspondingly shorter.

1500 jabs
According to Gundekar Giebel, head of communication of the Health, Social and Integration Directorate (GSI) of the Canton of Bern, a total of 1468 vaccinations were administered over the two days. “That was more than we had expected,” he said. The municipality of Saanen also drew a positive conclusion. Andreas Zoppas, head of security: “Everyone involved was surprised by the high demand.”

Over 90 per cent boosters
Over 90 per cent were booster vaccinations. The first and second vaccinations split the remaining ten per cent pretty much in half, Giebel said.

Again on 1 February
The vaccination truck will be back in Saanen on Tuesday, 1 February, from 10am to 8pm. “The vaccination truck comes to the region in consultation with the municipality of Saanen,” Giebel explained. It is always a collaboration of all parties involved, he said. The GSI mainly travels to the peripheral areas of the canton with its mobile services (vaccination truck and mobile vaccination teams). Whether the vaccination truck will come to Saanen again after February is still unclear as of today, and it is too early to make a decision, Zoppas said.

BASED ON AVS/ANITA MOSER