Sweden has been a great area for global epidemics: it has reduced lockdowns and kept restaurants, bars, schools, movie theaters and gyms largely open. And while mortality rates were higher compared to its Nordic neighbors, it was higher than in larger European countries.
Now, the second wave has brought a new surge in infection and Stockholm’s emergency services have been suppressed, forcing officials to reorganize their approach. They imposed new sanctions in late November that matched the country’s response to the rest of Europe. This includes public meetings and strict cutbacks on the size of some school closures.
But despite ski lifts, rest restaurants, rentals and bars, Sweden’s stricter sanctions are still lighter than in the rest of Europe, and concerns are growing that they are not enough. Intensive care beds at hospitals in the Stockholm area are currently occupied, Regional Health Director Bjorn Eriksen told a news conference on Tuesday.
“We are beyond 100 percent of our intensive care capacity. We are almost doubling the number of places available, ”he said.
Since the epidemic began, there has been a lot of discussion inside and outside Sweden about how to control the virus. As other countries move to lockdown in the spring, Sweden remains open to concerns that keeping everyone at home has long-term detrimental effects on children and adults and can lead to depression, suicide, delayed health care and job losses.
On Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lફfven said the country’s experts had underestimated the possibility of a second wave. This was the first time an official had criticized, but in a nutshell, Sweden’s public health agency, the coronavirus policy-making expert group and its leading epidemiologist, Anders Tagnell.
In October, Mr Tagnell said he hoped the spread of immunity in the population would help Sweden go through a decline with low-level cases.
“I don’t think most people in the business have seen another wave,” Mr Lofway said in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
Mr Tagnell’s agency is no longer calling for all the shots on virus policy and is increasingly having to share the stage with Swedish politicians who are playing a more active role.
During the first wave, deaths were higher, especially in the elderly. On Tuesday, a special commission in a preliminary report concluded that the government had failed to protect the elderly and was unprepared for the epidemic. “Across Europe, the death toll is higher for people over the age of 0,” he said.
The number of infections and deaths have been steadily rising since October. As of Tuesday, the total number of cases since the onset of the epidemic in Sweden had reached 320,098, while its neighbor Finland, with half the population of Sweden, had 31,110 cases, less than 10 percent of Sweden.
The total death toll in Sweden has reached 7,667 as of Tuesday. The country now has 74 deaths per 100,000 cases, less than the United Kingdom, 97, but with seven more than its neighbor Norway.
“I’m afraid it’s going to get worse,” said Karin Hildebrand, a cardiologist in the intensive care unit at Soders Jukhuset Hospital in Stockholm. “We are all scared of the coming week. We do not have enough staff to deal with this. “
A large number of nurses have quit their jobs since the onset of the epidemic.
About 3,000 nurses quit their jobs during the first 10 months of the year, said Sineva Ribeiro, president of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals. “Those who stayed are working very hard, very hard.”
And now the government is being criticized for not doing enough.
“I hoped this serious situation would change things, but yesterday they opened a ski lift in Sweden,” said Frederick Elge, a professor of clinical virology at Umeિયા University and a well-known critic of the official coronavirus response here. “Given such action, I don’t think the government is taking the drastic measures that were expected.”
Mr Lofven’s government, in an effort to stem the spread of the virus, issued new recommendations in late November banning gatherings of more than eight people.
Schools for children under the age of 16 have remained open during the epidemic, while some have now closed after the outbreak. A ban on drinking after 10pm has been imposed. On Monday, a state agency sent mass text messages warning people that they could limit Christmas gatherings to a maximum of eight people.
But officials ask, not giving orders.
Under Swedish law, the government is not allowed to force people to stay at home or penalize those who violate the recommendations.
The Netherlands, which has a lower infection rate than Sweden, went into a complete lockdown on Tuesday. Germany closed most of the country on Wednesday.
Rest restaurants, coffee shops and bars are open in Sweden.
Face masks are not recommended in Sweden because the Public Health Authority says there is not enough scientific evidence that they work.
So on Monday afternoon in Stockholm the “Chick Conditory” selling coffee and sweets was full of customers. Tea Kagstrom, an 18-year-old university student with feathered blonde hair, sat down with two friends enjoying a cup of coffee. Asked why she did not wear a face mask, he replied that it was not mandatory.
“The public health official did not say we should wear masks in public places.”
The government is enacting an emergency law that would give it the power to issue lockdown orders and close businesses when the virus spreads.
Critics are still calling for tougher action.
“We need a few weeks of lockdowns for the numbers to come down,” said Tow FF Le, a professor of nuclear epidemiology at Uppsala University near Stockholm. “Other countries are much more cautious at lower levels of transmission.”
Some are upset that facial masks are not used in Sweden.
“We are the only democracy in the world that does not recommend the use of face masks. There are more than 170 countries in the world that recommend the use of masks. But here they say there is not enough science behind it. That’s nonsense, “said Mr. Elghe, a professor of virology.
But others still argue that the risk of the virus is too high.
“Every death is tragic but it should be in proportion. About 85 percent of those who died in Sweden also had another disease, and many of those who died this spring would have died later this year, said Johnny Ludwigson, a pediatrician at Linkoping University, in an interview with the Afterbladet newspaper.
“I think we’re talking too much about the number of deaths during the Corona epidemic,” he said. “Compare what happens when the death rate in young people increases due to a level of depression that can end in a heart attack, late diagnosis of cancer, or suicide.”
