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STOCKHOLM: The King of Sweden said his country had failed in its handling of COVID-19, harshly criticizing a pandemic policy that is partly attributed to a high death toll among the elderly.
Carl XVI Gustaf, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive last month, used an annual royal Christmas television special to highlight the growing impact of the virus, in a rare intervention by a monarch whose duties are largely ceremonial.
Sweden has stood out from most countries for avoiding closed zippers and face masks, leaving schools, restaurants, and businesses largely open, and relying primarily on voluntary social distancing and hygiene recommendations to slow the spread.
An official commission said on Tuesday that systemic deficiencies in the care of the elderly, along with inadequate measures from the government and agencies, contributed to the particularly high number of deaths in Swedish nursing homes.
“I think we have failed,” said the king in an excerpt from the program broadcast by SVT on Wednesday. The full program airs on December 21.
“We have had a lot of deaths and that is terrible. That is something that brings us all suffering.”
Sweden has recorded more than 7,800 deaths, a per capita rate much higher than its Nordic neighbors but lower than Britain, Italy, Spain or France, which have opted for the closures.
The 74-year-old king has no formal political power and rarely comments on current and political issues, although he has addressed the nation to offer encouragement during the outbreak.
In the spring, the government’s response to the pandemic was widely supported by the Swedes who continued as normal as most of Europe entered the lockdown.
But the rising death toll, particularly among elderly nursing home residents, has drawn mounting criticism.
A poll published Thursday in the daily Dagens Nyheter showed that about a third of Swedes expressed a high level of confidence in the authorities’ handling of the pandemic, down from 42 percent in March and a peak of 56 percent after the summer truce in infections.
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