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There was a change in today’s press conference with the Public Health Agency.
Anders Tegnell now says that Sweden is in the “second wave” of the corona pandemic.
– It is a bit deliberate that I tried not to use it, says Anders Tegnell to Aftonbladet.
The dire corona situation Sweden finds itself in has generally been regarded as the “second wave” of the virus. But state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has declined to claim that this is the case and has avoided the concept in interviews.
This until today’s press conference, when Anders Tegnell said that Sweden is possibly at the “peak of the second wave”.
“We better be clear”
After the press conference, Aftonbladet asked if Anders Tegnell had deliberately avoided the concept.
– I think the whole “second wave” concept is a bit difficult, because it relates a lot to how we have seen the spread of flu in previous pandemics. This disease doesn’t really spread like the flu did. So it’s a bit intentional that I tried not to use it. But now there is so much talk about it, so it is better that we have everything clear. We can call this a second wave of covid-19, and it behaves quite differently than a second wave of influenza did, says Anders Tegnell.
Photograph: Staffan Löwstedt / SvD / TT
Medical personnel care for a patient at Södertälje Hospital.
So now you say “second wave” is it because it is so widespread that others say it?
– Yes, and also that we currently have a very widespread spread of the infection throughout society, which has gradually established itself in recent weeks. We now have a greater spread of the infection in practically all regions of Sweden, says Anders Tegnell.
Where are we then in the second wave?
– It’s hard to tell. We can only hope that we start to approach some kind of peak. Several of the countries in Europe have started to regress somewhat after a few weeks of recovery. We can well assume that Sweden will follow a similar scenario. But we can probably expect to stay at these levels, maybe even rise a bit more in a few weeks, and then we hope it can go down like it has in many other countries, says state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
Photo: LOTTE FERNVALL
Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
WHO warns of third wave
Speaking of “waves” of the pandemic, the WHO recently warned that Europe could be hit by a third wave in early 2021, if countries do not build the necessary infrastructure.
– I think it’s very important not to think this time either that it’s over just because it’s starting to go down. This disease has had an amazing ability to reappear in different forms. So I think that is exactly what the WHO says, but that their signal is not only to talk about a third wave, but above all that now we must not lose control here. That even if we go back down to slightly more reasonable levels, the pandemic is not over, says Anders Tegnell, a state epidemiologist at the Swedish Public Health Agency.
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