Swiss church bells mark year since first COVID-19 death

[March 05, 2021]  LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Swiss church bells rang out at noon on Friday and people observed a minute of silence to mark a year since the country's first death from COVID-19.

President Guy Parmelin announced the measure on public television last Sunday, urging citizens to honour the more than 9,300 people who have died from the disease in Switzerland.

At the Notre-Dame cathedral in Lausanne, a French-language Swiss city in the western part of the country, watchman Renato Hausler rang the 16th-century 'La Clemence' bell.

In April, as the pandemic set in, Hausler told Reuters he had resumed the practice of climbing the 153 stone steps to its tower to ring the bell at night, to stir residents' solidarity and courage.

(Reporting by Cecile Mantovani and Denis Balibouse in Lausanne; Writing by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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