Sirens will be tested this Wednesday afternoon in Switzerland

Sirens will be tested this Wednesday afternoon in Switzerland


This first Wednesday in February Switzerland is testing its sirens between 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The alertswiss communication application will also be tested. The population should not take any measure, specifies the Federal Office for Population Protection (OFPP).

The general alarm signal, a continuous oscillating sound, will be broadcast for one minute. If necessary, the test may be repeated until 2:00 p.m. The water alarm will be tested between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the latest in risk areas located downstream of the dams. It consists of twelve serious sounds of 20 seconds each, separated by intervals of 10 seconds.

In all cantons, a notification will also be triggered via the Alertswiss application. It is both a question of verifying the system’s ability to send a very large number of push notifications and to use them to avoid the confusion of the sirens test with a real alarm. The “information” level notifications do not trigger a sound signal on the phone. Such a signal is reserved for real alarms, recalls the OFPP.

The OFPP recommends that the population take advantage of the sirens test to check their personal preparation, in particular by installing the Alertswiss application on all its mobile devices, preparing its personal or family emergency plan, as well as its domestic provisions. Finally, citizens living within a radius of 50 km around nuclear power plants are invited to check if they still have their iodine tablets. /ATS



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