Switzerland. Canton Ticino. Rivera. Monte Ceneri military base. Due to the spread of the coronavirus (also called Covid-19), the Federal Council has categorised the situation in the country as “extraordinary”. The army was called upon to provide logistical support and to offer its skills in terms of medical assistance (ambulances, field hospital, tents, nurses,..). The militia soldiers from medical troops were called by the Swiss army for the first time since World War II. Under the country's militia system, professional soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are conscripts or volunteers aged 19 to 34 (in some cases up to 50). A woman soldier seats alone on a table after eating her lunch. She is a professional nurse and teaches militia soldiers how to be a military nurse. On her right shoulder she wears the badge of the Red Cross Service (SCR) which is made up of some 250 women with professional training in the health field and who, perpetuating the long Red Cross tradition founded by Henry Dunant, volunteer to support the army's medical service. Monte Ceneri is a mountain pass in the canton of Ticino. It connects the Magadino plain and the Vedeggio valley across the Prealps. 2.04.2020 © 2020 Didier Ruef