Zermatt is home to one of the Swiss ski stations that has become an epicenter of discord among Alpine neighbors. “It's true, we're privileged,” said Salamin, enthusing about the “paradise” of the Zermatt slopes and gesturing over the ridgeline toward Italy. These seem only minor concessions to the hundreds of faithful skiers who gleefully turned out for a weekday jaunt on the Swiss slopes near the Matterhorn on Thursday. On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte confirmed Italian ski lifts will remain closed through Jan. 7. Austria will allow skiing to start on Dec. 24, but will limit the capacity of ski lifts until early January.

Bertrand Levrat, General Director of Geneva Hospitals speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. It’s a line that we don’t repeat enough,” Levrat said from his office overlooking Geneva, a surgical mask tucked into his jacket pocket. The Swiss benefit from a relatively rich population in a less densely populated country. Switzerland, at more than 8.6 million people, has a smaller population than the metropolitan areas of Paris and London, for example. While Switzerland isn't in the European Union, its fortunes and fate are closely tied to the bloc, and the virus knows no borders.