Swiss on way to halving COVID-19 infections every two weeks

FILE PHOTO: Passengers wearing protective masks wait to board the Jungfraujoch train in the ski resort of Grindelwald, Switzerland, November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland is on its way towards halving the number of new COVID-19 infections every two weeks thanks to strict measures in the country's west that was particularly hard hit by the second wave of the virus, officials said on Tuesday.

Martin Ackermann, head of the COVID-19 science task force, told a media briefing a national reproduction rate at 0.7 to 0.8 meant the number of new infections was being cut in half every fortnight. A value below 1 means that statistically one infected person passes the virus on to fewer than one other person.