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Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has been shopping at the Gallerian Mall in Sweden, contrary to his own recommendation to the Swedish people. Writes the Swedish newspaper Expressen.
– Of course, we cannot have space in Christmas shopping as we usually do, said the Prime Minister during a press conference on December 18.
Two days later, he stopped by the mall himself. The Prime Minister is said to have visited the mall four times during December.
– No Christmas presents
The prime minister’s press officer, Mikael Lindström, says Löfven was at the center of a “planned mission.”
– The Prime Minister was not in the Gallerian to buy Christmas presents, but to pick up something he had left in early December. He has followed the advice of the Public Health Authority and his own calls to avoid congestion, he tells Aftonbladet.
Expressen’s revelation came shortly before state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell met with the press to report on the status of the crown in Sweden on Tuesday.
In Sweden, 205 new deaths have been registered since last Wednesday. A total of 8,484 people have died during the pandemic in Sweden.
Since Wednesday, 32,485 new cases of infection have also been registered.
When asked about Löfven’s shopping trip during the press conference, Tegnell had this to say, according to Aftonbladet:
– We do not evaluate individual cases, we work to reduce the spread of infection.
However, he emphasized that it is general advice to avoid shopping centers as much as possible, but that the highest risk of infection is associated with the home and workplaces.
The national council of the National Public Health Board, which took effect on December 14, advises against visits to public media.
Before December 14, the city councils applied. During the first of four shopping trips, on December 1, the current advice for the area in question was to avoid all stores except supermarkets and pharmacies, writes Expressen.
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Former state epidemiologist Annika Linde is among those who reacted to the revelation.
– Until further notice, the stores are open and we don’t have an order for bandages, so technically neither he nor Morgan Johansson have done anything wrong. But in terms of reputation, I think this applies: a prime minister is responsible for an entire people and therefore should not expose himself to the slightest danger, he tells Dagens Nyheter.
She notes that Löfven himself has discouraged shopping trips and says the disclosure may have an unfortunate signal effect.
– If this is done with all security measures, he should probably be able to order online himself like the rest of us.
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The revelation also comes shortly after Löfven chastised his own Justice Minister Morgan Johansson for going to a “noon sale.”
Before Christmas, Sweden’s Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, declared that the traditional “noon sale”, the Christmas space sale, should be canceled due to the corona pandemic.
However, this did not stop Morgan Johansson of the Social Democrats from embarking on a delayed Christmas gift shopping on the second day of Christmas.
– I visited a mall on Christmas day to buy a belated Christmas present for my parents. It was an oversight and he should have planned the purchases better, the minister wrote in an SMS to SVT.
Löfven was quickly in dialogue with Johansson about the incident.
– The Prime Minister has contacted the Minister of Justice, who has given an account of the incident on the second day of Christmas and the possibility of maintaining a safe distance during the action. The prime minister shares the justice minister’s view that it was an oversight, writes the prime minister’s press officer, Mikael Lindström, in a text message to Dagens Nyheter.
