(Credit: Bern.com)

The directors of five of Switzerland’s largest hospitals have asked Health Minister Alain Berset to impose much more stringent measures in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

Heads of the university hospitals in Zürich, Bern, Basel, Lausanne, and Geneva said that the second pandemic wave was forcing them to postpone operations for patients with other life-threatening conditions.

Director of the Zürich University hospital Gregor Zund said that full lockdown was needed as soon as possible. The third wave of COVID-19 in early 2021 could trigger a collapse of the health system, Swiss top doctors warned.

The Swiss Federal Council imposed new nationwide measures on Dec. 11, set to last until Jan. 22, 2021. Theaters and opera houses have announced their closures until the end of January 2021. The Council is set to convene on Dec. 18 again in order to re-evaluate the epidemiological situation. Switzerland has been logging around 5,000 new cases and 100 deaths per day in the last few days.