A stinging official report released on Tuesday states that the Swedish government has failed to adequately protect the elderly in care homes from COVID-19 and is ultimately responsible for the impact of the epidemic in the country, according to a stinging official report released on Tuesday.
Unlike others, the lockdown is no longer mandatory, but depending on the spirit of civic duty of the citizens, the way the Scandinavian country is handling the epidemic in Europe and other countries is out of the question.
But an independent commission to look into Sweden’s epidemic management said on Tuesday that the country’s elderly care had major structural deficiencies and that authorities had proved unprepared and unprepared to deal with the epidemic. About half of the country’s COVID-19 deaths occur in care homes.
The head of the commission, Mets Melin, said the blame for structural deficiencies in Sweden’s healthcare system could be placed on several officials and organizations.
“But we still want to say that the government governs the country and so the ultimate responsibility lies with the government and previous governments,” Melin said.
Most schools, bars and restaurants have been kept open since the Swedish authorities responded to the epidemic by advising people to practice social distance.
So far, 341,029 confirmed infections and 7,667 virus-related deaths have been reported in the country of just over 10 million people, more than the number of deaths in neighboring Norway, Finland or Denmark.
Despite Sweden having the highest per capita-19 mortality rate in the world, Prime Minister Stefan Lફfven’s government and chief epidemiologist Anders Tagnell have long defended the controversial coronavirus strategy as sustainable. However, they have acknowledged failures in their efforts to protect the elderly and nursing home residents.
Sweden’s Nordic neighbors pay more attention to caring for elderly citizens during epidemics, a commission report said on Tuesday.
“In other Nordic countries … the care of the elderly is more concentrated in the early epidemic measures of the authorities,” the report said.
Sweden’s strategy was also expected to prevent a resurgence of the disease in the country this fall, but early on Tuesday Lofven said health officials had misjudged the impact of the latest wave of epidemics.
“I don’t think most people in the business saw such a wave in front of them, they talked about different clusters,” the prime minister told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
Sweden has seen a rapid increase in new coronavirus infections, which has strained its healthcare system. The virus has spread rapidly among medical personnel, forcing the government to support further bans, including a nationwide ban on the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants after 10 p.m.
The government has also imposed its strictest coronavirus restrictions to date by banning public gatherings of more than eight people.
