The health ministry asked the finance ministry to make available 3.3 billion euros to offer free tests for citizens, 1.5 billion euros to enable family doctors to offer vaccinations and 1 billion euros of emergency aid for hospitals, a finance ministry document sent to lawmakers showed.
Under the proposals each person would be given five self-test kits per months, as soon as reliable tests are available, the government said, while all tests at pharmacies and testing centres will be free of charge.
To ensure more testing is carried out, the government proposed to pay for the voluntary tests. It estimated the expanded testing scheme will cost more than 1 billion francs this year.
Jens Spahn said rapid antigen tests were now sufficiently available on the market to enable local test centres and pharmacies to offer the tests for free.
Spahn also wants to make tests that can be conducted at home available to everyone once they have been approved by regulators.
"I'm just disappointed because the Australian Open seemed from the beginning about profits and not the safety of the public," said John Reilly, echoing some of the online sentiment.
But all have run up against thousands of US border guards and soldiers under Trump, who characterized immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and criminals.