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The Swedish special approach has just taken an unexpected turn: the relatively casual approach to the corona pandemic has been replaced by a strategy with clear measures. For a week, a maximum of eight people have been allowed to meet in public, restaurants close at 10:30 p.m. and museums are closed.
End of lax measures: Sweden officially abandons the special crown route today(00:53)
Reason for change: After a quiet summer in late November, the number of new infections rose to around 5,000 a day, and a total of around 6,700 people died from Corona.
“False security”
The Swedish government has massively tightened the screw. But a protective measure has yet to be introduced: the mask requirement. The health authorities’ home page even explicitly states that they do not recommend ‘widespread use of mouth guards’.
State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell (64), who has so far provided the special Swedish route, believes that the masks do not stop infections and promise the user false security. In the dense commuter stream, only about three out of every hundred people wear a mask.
The World Health Organization (WHO) observes this development with concern. Therefore, it has asked Sweden to recommend the use of masks in addition to social distancing.
Increase in mask sales
One person wearing a mask in Sweden is the Swiss émigré Tobias Keller (48), who lives with his family in the small resort town of Västervik, about 200 kilometers south of Stockholm. “As I am convinced of the protective effect, I always wear a mask when I go shopping at the store,” he told VIEW. But the price is high: “The Swedes avoid me like a leper.”
Notice that about two out of every hundred people in the supermarket wear masks, while there are some on the bus. However, the trend is increasing slightly. “Older people, in particular, are now increasingly protecting themselves with a mask,” says Keller. In fact, the sale of masks has increased from 80,000 to 700,000 per week in just a few weeks.
Requires mask
What would have to happen for the Swedes to wear a mask too? Tobias Keller: “Anders Tegnell should give a clear recommendation. The Swedes are very authoritarian. “
After all, requests for a skin requirement are increasing. From the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for example, you can hear that there is now sufficient evidence that “a face mask minimizes transmission of the virus through the air.”
