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Three countries, three different crown strategies: Sweden is one step ahead
Sweden is tightening the screw. Austria is now the toughest, having fewer cases than Switzerland.
Patients in the corona ward of the Lugano hospital.
“Brutal”, says the 70-year-old Swiss woman who lives twenty kilometers from the Austrian border. “They are not even allowed out. Like in jail ”, he continues. “Hopefully they don’t come up with an idea like that.” He would hardly stick to that, he says so and walks his dog.
The instructions from Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are probably not just from the Eastern Swiss. He has forbidden his compatriots to leave home without good reason. “Every social contact is too much,” says Kurz, calling for private meetings to be kept to a minimum. This strategy is similar to that of Germany and differs from that of Switzerland and even more so from what Sweden has followed since the start of the pandemic.
Sweden wants herd immunity
Three countries, three different strategies in the fight against the coronavirus. While Switzerland tries to suppress the pandemic wave as much as possible and at the same time protect people at risk to maintain the full functionality of hospitals, Sweden has long worked in the direction of the infection and renounced a total closure.
Volunteering was part of the strategy. Sweden is now significantly tightening its measures. But the toughest strategy of the three is to go to Austria, which helped spread the virus in Europe with ski hut parties in Ischgl in February.
If you compare the current situation in these countries, you can see a steady decrease in the number of infections in Switzerland over two weeks to the current 4560 new infections in the last 24 hours. Virginie Masserey of the Federal Office of Public Health says: “The measures are beginning to have an effect on the number of new infections.” However, the situation is still worrying, the reproduction number, the R-value, too high, which has fallen to 0.81. In Austria, the curve for new infections continues to rise, but has not yet reached the Swiss record highs of late October.
The number of cases in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:
Sweden is still far behind Switzerland
In Sweden, the number of corona cases has increased significantly recently, to around 2000 new infections daily. Internationally, the largest Nordic country is still in the lower midfield and only has about a third of cases in Switzerland. Sweden is relatively on par with Germany and higher than its neighbors Denmark and Norway. At the same time, the death rate, which has been very low since the summer, is increasing, and hospitals in Sweden are also feeling increasing pressure.
The hospitalization curve continues to increase in Austria and Switzerland, but it is somewhat flat in our country. In terms of the number of intensive care patients, the two neighboring countries are comparable with around 500 seriously ill patients. The federal government yesterday reported 542 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units, and also that intensive care beds were fully occupied in a third of the cantons.
Patients in intensive care units in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:
A similar amount is tested in all three countries
About the same amount is currently being tested in Switzerland, Austria, and Sweden. However, the number of tests in Switzerland has dropped significantly in the last few days until yesterday 19495. The positivity rate of around 25 percent is similar in Switzerland and Austria, so the number of unreported cases is high in both countries. Sweden is significantly lower with a positivity rate of 10 percent.
Like Switzerland, Austria also adopted stricter measures in late October. For example, only up to six people could meet inside, while there were twelve outside. And where distance could not be kept, it was mandatory to wear a mask outdoors. The rules were similar to those in Switzerland, but are now much stricter.
Sweden is tightening the screw
And now the Swedish government tightened the screw earlier in the week and issued bans, which is rare there in relation to Corona. As of Friday, after 10 pm, alcohol will no longer be served; on November 24, public events will be limited to just eight people. For the first time, they are threatened with fines for infractions. Theaters, concerts, demonstrations and sporting events are affected.
On the other hand, the prohibition does not apply to institutions such as libraries, swimming pools or schools, and not to private parties. Sweden has as little legal basis for this as for closing shops or restaurants, and the left-wing green government has so far shown no intention of adapting the epidemic law accordingly.
Instead, Sweden goes its own special path with recommendations. The government hopes that the few bans will rub off on behavior in all walks of life, even if the law does not provide any regulations. Do not have dinners with friends and cancel invitations, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said with a dramatically serious expression: “This is the new norm for the whole country.”
Meanwhile, the stricter recommendations apply to virtually all of Sweden, originally intended only as local measures. These go far: the population is asked not to go to cafes, restaurants, shopping centers, museums or swimming pools and to avoid public transport. So it is a recommended lock. So far, however, the Swedes have reacted less obediently than in the spring; Full buses and shopping malls attest to this. Therefore, Löfven said, his now stricter restrictions are necessary.
In Sweden there are no mask requirements yet
However, this does not apply in one area: mouth guards are not recommended, much less prescribed, to the population. Just Tuesday, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell once again confirmed his resistance to masks, after the WHO warned Sweden. Mouth guards, he said, “are not yet a necessary measure,” Tegnell said. According to the epidemiologist, there was still a lack of clear scientific evidence on the benefits of masks in the population.
And: Other countries with mandatory face masks would still have high infection rates. With a host of Swedish researchers and doctors, but also media commentary, criticism of Tegnell’s defensive stance is growing. But the government has not interfered on this point so far.
It is interesting to see a scientific comparison between Sweden and its neighboring countries, which have opted for an orderly closure. Tegnell had always said that voluntary measures had the same effect as legal measures. In fact, the Swedes have adapted their behavior independently, which can be seen, for example, in the mobility comparison, that it has been reduced by roughly the same amount.
Willingness to spend was similarly reduced in Denmark and Sweden. So there was a substantial voluntary blockade, but the spread of the virus stopped significantly less in Sweden than in neighboring countries. The deaths were also higher. It turned out that in Sweden, volunteering made 18-29 year olds less cautious. However, Tegnell explains the many deaths in spring from misbehavior in nursing homes, which has now been improved.
If you look at the total duration of the pandemic, Sweden, with a total of 6,225 deaths, has almost twice as many deaths per crown as Switzerland, with 3,300 deaths. In Austria there are even fewer deaths, with 1,945 deaths.
The deaths in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:
However, a look at the statistics shows that Sweden is doing better than Austria and Switzerland, which are currently at the top of the world’s new confirmed per capita infections. Which strategy of these countries is the best will only be seen when the pandemic is over.
It is indisputable that there are countries that have suffered much less from the coronavirus, such as New Zealand, whose R-value has never risen above 0.2. An isolated island, however, has it easier with the choice of strategy.
