That is why Sweden is being hit hard in the new wave.

Sweden now has 6,978 deaths, which corresponds to approximately 660 deaths per million inhabitants. Norway has 334 (60 per million), Finland 399 (70 per million) and Denmark 846 (150 per million).

The fact that Sweden stands out is not only due to the fact that Sweden had more deaths than neighboring countries during the first wave of the corona pandemic this spring. In the last 14 days, the death toll is 3.5 per million in Sweden, 1.3 in Denmark, 0.7 in Norway and 0.5 in Finland, according to figures from the European Agency for the Control of Communicable Diseases ( ECDC).

Tengell: Norway and Finland are outliers

At Tuesday’s press conference, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell had to once again answer the question asked so many times before during the pandemic:

Why has Sweden been much more affected than the rest of the Nordic region? TV4 wondered.

Tegnell’s answer:

– Sweden follows the same pattern as many other worst affected countries in Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, etc. Denmark is somewhere in the middle, whereas Norway and Finland are particularly outliers in the European context.

Norway has a population density of 14 inhabitants per square kilometer. Finland is 16, Sweden 23.

Among the countries with which Anders Tegnell compares Sweden, Belgium has 369 inhabitants per square kilometer, the Netherlands 419 and the United Kingdom 267. However, Tegnell highlights population density as a possible explanation why Finland and Norway cope better the pandemic than Sweden.

– If it depends on the social structure you have in the countries, if it is because you are much less densely populated … It certainly depends on how extensive the spread of the infection was in the spring, because it seems to be reflected very strongly even during the second wave .

I think the answer is delayed

Anders Tegnell stated that, in principle, all the regions that were hit hard during the first wave were also hit hard the second time, but there are also countries that managed to escape slightly in the spring but are now heavily affected, despite from the harsh restrictions.

TV4: Is this something you are reviewing?

– This is a big and difficult question. Also, the answer is not known until very far in the future. We can see that some countries that did it very lightly during the first wave and that had enormously strong measures during the second wave have nevertheless been hit hard.

– I still find it difficult to say what is the cause and effect of this complicated disease.

Anders Tegnell has previously highlighted infection in Swedish nursing homes as an explanation for high mortality rates.

His Norwegian colleague Frode Forland, on the other hand, has said that Norway has also had infections in their nursing homes and that it is rather the spread of the infection throughout society that explains the differences in mortality rates.