ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government on Friday shifted its focus in the fight against the new coronavirus to protecting those most vulnerable, while continuing to try to slow its spread and track the origins of individual cases as long as possible.

“The focus is on protecting the health of particularly vulnerable people,” the government said in a statement. “The aim is to prevent serious illnesses and deaths as well as avoiding overloading health facilities.”

Until now, the main goal of the Swiss effort was to identify people as early as possible, track the path of transmission and stop further transmission.

So far in Switzerland, one person, a 74-year-old woman who suffered from additional health problems, has died after contracting the disease, while 87 people have been confirmed to have the virus by a test at the nation’s reference laboratory in Geneva.

(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)

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