A quarter of Switzerland’s workers have been put on shorter hours as companies seek to limit the financial damage of the coronavirus epidemic, the government said on Saturday, with both deaths and confirmed infections still rising. The national death toll from the outbreak has reached 540, up from 484 on Friday, while the number of people testing positive for infections also increased to 20,278 from 19,303, the health ministry said. While the country is testing more and more people, the health ministry said the main reason for seeing more confirmed cases is that infections continue to rise. Switzerland has approved a total economic aid package exceeding 60 billion Swiss francs ($61.37 billion) to help soften the epidemic’s impact. Some 1.3 million workers, from a population of 8.6 million people, are on short-time work hours, a program normally meant to help firms temper fluctuating demand but which has been deployed now with unprecedented speed. “The economy will not exit this crisis unscathed,” said Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, economy ministry state secretary. “Even so, with all the economic measures it has deployed, the government is creating confidence and opportunity in the future for everyone in Switzerland.”