Here’s how Sweden helps other countries during the pandemic

This summer, DN reported on covid-19 help to Sweden from other countries and foreign companies, such as Norwegian propofol, Taiwanese mouth guards, and test kits from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

According to the staff of the Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren, Sweden has not received any more support of this kind since then, however we have helped and cooperated with the outside world in several different ways since the pandemic began.

In September, the National Board of Health and Welfare closed an agreement with its Norwegian counterpart to sell 100,000 mouth guards to Norway. The masks belong to the highest protection class FFP3 and will be delivered shortly. Sweden has a surplus of mouth guards, but if the need arises in the future, and Norway has secured their supply, we should be able to buy back the corresponding quantity.

Karolinska University Hospital also collaborates with other EU countries in ecmo places for patients with covid-19. Ecmo is a heart and lung machine used to treat seriously ill patients. If a country has run out of ECMO sites, it can request to transfer patients to a hospital in one of the participating countries.

Karolinska is considered very skilled specifically when it comes to transporting patients with ecmo and therefore Karolinska often requests the transport services, even if the patient is not going to Karolinska, but to another hospital in another country. It is the country that has requested the transport that bears the cost, as well as if the patient is treated in another country, ”the staff of the Minister of Social Affairs wrote in an email.

Sweden has also taken on the role of reselling vaccine doses from the joint EU acquisition to Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Member states agreed to release around three percent of their doses to the three countries and, to ensure supply, the EU buys additional doses.

Also much of Sweden’s development aid has been redirected due to the pandemic. To date, Sweden has donated a total of SEK 1.56 billion to specific covid-19 initiatives. This is SEK 370 million in support of government offices and an estimated SEK 1.19 billion from Sida.

Support from government offices has gone to the UN, WHO, and the IMF. Furthermore, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced that Sweden will provide SEK 100 million in support of the covax vaccine program, where countries with resources ensure that the weakest economies have access to vaccines.

Many of Sida’s partners, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef ​​and the Red Cross, have led a variety of support that otherwise goes to sexual and reproductive health and rights, human rights, democracy, gender equality, education and employment. Instead, the money is used for the direct and / or indirect consequences of covid-19.

In countries where Sweden has bilateral assistance, the funds are used for other “health system strengthening initiatives”, such as the creation of epidemiological surveillance systems and the strengthening of local health and medical care.

Peter Eriksson (MP), who is the minister of International Development Cooperation, says that the money has been diverted from efforts that could not yet be implemented due to the pandemic. Among other things, aid personnel have not been able to move within countries.

– The pandemic has many consequences. Health care interventions, such as vaccination against malaria, polio, and tuberculosis, cannot be carried out in the same way as planned.

It does not rule out that more money can be redirected.

– We must constantly adapt development aid to what is happening in the world. Of course, this also applies to development with the crown crisis.

Read more:

This is what covid-19 aid from the outside world looks like for Sweden

The corona virus: the truth behind China’s “generous gifts” to Europe