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According to Johan Carlson, director general of the Swedish Public Health Agency, recent official data shows that the overall infection rate is “decreasing” and “the number of patients treated in intensive care units is also decreasing.”
At a press conference in Stockholm on Tuesday, Carlson said the slowdown in the scale of infections “was due to our constant efforts to keep us at a physical distance.”
This is the result of months of controversy over Sweden’s decision to avoid the royal quarantine and rather to rely on the conscious determination of its citizens to follow the recommendations of social isolation.
But the number of deaths in the country still exceeds the death rate from COVID in other Scandinavian countries: in Sweden, the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants is more than ten times higher than in neighboring Norway.
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says his strategy will pay off in the long term as a much more sustainable approach than the sudden introduction and subsequent lifting of quarantines in other countries.
The example from China was mentioned when a country that appeared to have controlled the virus recently reported new outbreaks.
“Part of Sweden’s less stringent stance is the view that restrictions will be needed for some time and that it is not clear whether the public will accept stricter measures in the long term,” said Johanna Jeansson, an economic researcher at Bloomberg Economics.
Immunity
Sweden’s general response to COVID-19 may have led to more people being affected by the virus and raised the question of collective immunity. But the data so far is conflicting.
The Public Health Agency, in a study published in June, found that only 6.1 percent of the antibodies were detected in the week ending May 24. Samples collected nationwide.
A previous analysis of 50,000 tests from a private company, Werlabs AB, showed that about 14 percent People tested within six weeks in the Stockholm region developed COVID-19 antibodies.
According to Carlson, “immunity could undoubtedly play a role in areas where infection was prevalent, and this could have affected the overall results.”
Ironically, the basic requirements for social isolation in Sweden are now stricter than in many other countries. This is because countries like Denmark and Norway have relaxed the quarantines they introduced at the start of the pandemic in an attempt to overcome COVID-19.
The stringency of Sweden’s requirements under the Covid-19 Government Response Tracker shows that the country currently has stricter movement restrictions than Norway and Finland.
“Sweden’s strategy is poorly represented on a large scale, saying it does nothing. That is not the case,” said Williams Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Although the death toll, especially among the elderly in nursing homes, is very high, “in the end,” Sweden’s approach may prove more sustainable than other countries, “he said.
According to J. Jeansson of Bloomberg Economics, Swedes are unlikely to return to a normal pace of life in the near future, still concerned about the virus.
“The restrictions are likely to continue to limit demand in Sweden, at least in the third quarter,” he said. “And then, in our view, social isolation will continue to hamper economic activity, most likely as long as the vaccine is available.”
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