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Sweden, whose strategy against covid-19 has been relatively relaxed, limited the number of people in public meetings to eight as of Tuesday, the most radical measure promoted in the second wave by the government, now more interventionist.
Meeting restrictions – a decision “incomparable in modern times”According to the Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, the ban on the sale of alcohol from 22:00 and the order to close the hotel and nightclubs at 22:30, which came into force last week, follows.
None of these were motivated by a request from the Public Health Agency (FHM), charged with devising a strategy that, until now, consisted of many recommendations and calls for individual responsibility.
Although the Government assured that the measures were taken in “close dialogue” with the health authorities, the chief epidemiologist of the FHM, Anders Tegnell, distanced himself from the Government’s decisions a few days ago saying that contact was minimal and that the decision It is from the Executive.
“We maintain a continuous dialogue, the Government says what we say: that we must all work to stop this. The Government is advancing in the area where it has always been, we need legal measures. The division of tasks is the same as always, we have full mutual trust “., said today, more conciliatory, Tegnell, at a press conference.
In this public appearance, today’s figures were released, which counted 94 deaths since Friday, raising the total of 6,500 deaths and 225,560 infections.
The conservative newspaper “Svenska Dagbladet”, one of the largest in Sweden, noted, however, citing anonymous government sources, “frustration” at the FHM’s wrong forecasts. If in the spring Sweden became the Nordic country with the highest mortality from covid-19, in the summer the contagion numbers were below the neighbors. However, in recent weeks it surpassed the others, when FHM had predicted a few months ago that only local outbreaks would appear.
The latest weekly report from the health authorities highlights the continuing “wide” spread of the contagion and the upward trend, with a 24% increase in new cases. With an incidence of 577.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, the rate in Sweden is double Denmark and triple Norway, although it is still far from the values of the countries most affected by the second wave of the pandemic.
Last Wednesday, Sweden recorded 96 deaths, the highest daily value in five months, although it included previous deaths that had not yet been counted.
The 21 regions into which the country is divided followed the recommendations, calling for social contact to be kept to a minimum.
“What we do now will influence what Christmas will be like and who can stay with us. It may seem cruel and brutal, but the reality is precisely so cruel and harsh ”, Löfven said Sunday in a speech to the Nation in what was his fourth public appearance in a week.
Despite the harshness of the words and the new measures, there are also data that invite optimism: the number of new admissions and patients in Intensive Care Units has decreased, mortality in patients admitted after 14 days has decreased. It has halved between March and October and the reproduction rate fell from 1.55% to 1.16%.
Examinations conducted last week reveal that one in three Stockholm residents would have antibodies to the virus, double the previous month, implying a move towards group immunity, a goal never openly stated by the FHM, but attributed by critics of the Swedish strategy.
“It is a complicated issue, but we do not see signs of immunity in the population that prevent contagion”, Tegnell said today, who believes that the peak of the disease will be in two weeks.
A report from the Health Inspection Service released today confirms the deficiencies reported by various authorities: one in five infected Swedish residents has not been examined by a doctor.
“This is simply unacceptable,” said the managing director of that body, Sofia Wallström.
Löfven called the revelations made in that report “very serious” and urged regional authorities to correct these flaws.
The change in strategy also contrasts with the government’s own attitude, which a little over a month ago, when the second wave was already a reality in several European countries, decided to allow events of up to 300 people seated and home visits.
What has not changed is the position of the health authorities in relation to masks, a skepticism that has been abandoned by the rest of the Nordic countries and that is based on the lack of evidence of their benefits and that can give a false sense of security.
“It is a controversial issue. In Sweden we are betting on distance as the first tool. At this time, we do not believe it necessary to recommend its common useKarin Tegmark Wisell, a virologist at FHM, reiterated a few days ago.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which annually elects Nobel laureates in various fields, announced a few days ago that it recommended wearing a mask at its facilities, according to the advice of its group of experts on covid-19.
“There is nothing to indicate that its use can increase contagion”stated the president, Staffan Normark.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,397,322 deaths as a result of more than 59.2 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
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