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The image of a country that had discovered how to avoid the damage that confinement causes to the economy, while protecting its population from contagion, is irretrievably compromised by the latest data on the development of the pandemic.
According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the country, with a population of around ten million, has registered 312,000 cases of Covid-19 so far, 7,200 of them fatal.. In the last month alone, there were 1,200 deaths of people infected with the new coronavirus. In the last 24 hours, Sweden registered 7,370 new cases and 160 deaths. The capacity of the national health service to provide intensive care is on the verge of exhaustion: 99 percent of intensive care beds are occupied.
Stockholm Health and Medical Services Director Bjorn Eriksson admitted at a press conference that the situation in the country is quite dire and appealed: “We need help”.
“We mobilized everything we got and gave everything we had so that everyone could receive the care they need. Now we have to continue to do our best, together, to resist the virus and the pandemic, ”Eriksson stressed.
According to Eriksson, there were 814 patients admitted to hospitals in the capital on Wednesday, 83 of whom were in intensive care. “This corresponds to more or less the total capacity of intensive care beds that we normally have”He explained.
“The situation is very serious, there are many cases throughout the country”Karin Tegmark Wisell, department head of the public health agency (FHM), admitted at a press conference, despite stressing that the rise has slowed in recent days.
Of the 21 Swedish regions, eight have reinforced medical personnel and, although none are in a situation of extreme emergency, the situation is expected to worsen, according to data from the General Directorate of Social Affairs.
However, other experts deny that the country is in a state of exhaustion. Regional authorities in Stockholm had warned on Wednesday that the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were running out of capacity and needed reinforcements, but a Social Affairs official said Wednesday that 22 percent capacity still exists. available nationwide and that more resources can be made available if needed.
“We are uneasy about the situation, but not to the point that it is out of control. ICUs are overloaded and staff are busy, but we can expand capacity. It is not an urgent crisis situationand, ”said Irene Nilsson-Carlsson.
Nilsson-Carlsson emphasized that the average length of stay in hospitals for Covid-19 was “significantly” reduced compared to the first wave, last spring, and that only eleven percent of infected patients currently require admission to the hospital. ICU.
The second wave leads the government to tighten the measures
Sweden was one of the only countries that devised a different strategy than most to combat the pandemic, avoiding widespread confinement and the mandatory use of masks. Due, Sweden is the country most affected by Scandinavia, despite staying away from countries like Spain, Italy, France or the United Kingdom. The Swedish death rate of 71.65 per 100,000 inhabitants is five times higher than in Denmark and ten times higher than in Norway and Finland.
However, with the appearance of a second wave, the Government changed its strategy, by prohibiting concentrations of more than eight people, the sale of alcohol from 10:00 p.m. and by decreeing the closure of bars, restaurants and nightclubs at 10:30 p.m.
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Sweden also decided this week to place high school and college students in Stockholm in virtual education. “We must drastically reduce our contacts, therefore, unfortunately, I feel obliged to recommend to the municipalities [da região de Estocolmo] Discard face-to-face education for students in an advanced stage of education as of Monday, ”the regional head of infection control announced in a statement. Stockholm is the region most affected by the pandemic in Sweden, accounting for more than a third of the total deaths from Covid-19 in the country.
Given the worsening of the epidemiological situation in the country, the Swedish public health agency (WFH) has hardened the tone of its recommendations, although it still does not advise wearing a mask due to lack of scientific evidence, despite recently intensified recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Masks may be necessary in certain situations. These situations have not yet arisen in Sweden, according to our conversations with regional health administrations ”, defended Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist and head of the Swedish strategy against the pandemic.
In May, Tegnell championed the idea of group immunity, which was supposed to protect the most vulnerable groups. Under this strategy, the young, healthy population would be infected in sufficient numbers to establish broad immunity in the community, while the elderly would remain isolated to prevent infection. However, the numbers would reveal an opposite reality: Less than ten percent of Stockholm’s population has developed antibodies to fight the disease, and nearly half of the deaths in Sweden have occurred in nursing homes and nursing homes.
“The health authorities chose a totally different strategy from the rest of Europe, so the country suffered a lot during the first wave,” said Piotr Nowak, a doctor who works at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, with Covid-19. “No we have some idea how they couldn’t predict the second wave, “added Nowak, who explains that most of the medical community does not share the” irrational optimism “of the Swedish public health agency.
with agencies
