Sweden has begun to ease coronavirus restrictions
On Tuesday, Sweden will be the last Nordic country to start easing coronavirus restrictions, even though the Scandinavian nation continues to have one of highest infection rate in Europe.
The rules will be released for the number of people who can attend sporting events, outdoor concerts, cinemas and markets, while the bar’s opening hours will be extended.
But Sweden, the only EU country that did not shut down during the first phase of the pandemic last year, will wait until at least July for a greater easing of restrictions. Its neighbors Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have all opened their communities several times in recent weeks.
“It does not relieve much,” Karin Tegmark Wisell, assistant state epidemiologist, told the Financial Times. “It is not until we. . . has a stable lower number of new cases, lower pressure on healthcare and a higher number of vaccinated that we can enter a new phase where we examine relief in a truer way. ”
Stefan Lofven, Prime Minister, said last week “the message is not that the pandemic is over. . . even if it gets better. It is rather how we behave now and in the future that determines whether we can alleviate the restrictions further or not ”.
Sweden has the second highest number of covid-19 cases per capita in the EU, which was previously the worst affected country, even though it is much better placed in hospital admissions and deaths. Its economy recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter, according to gross domestic product data released on Friday, at a faster pace than most in the EU.
During the pandemic, Sweden has fared worse than its Nordic neighbors due to excess mortality, hospital stays and falls, but better than large parts of Europe. It reacted slowly to the second wave in the autumn when officials such as chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell thought that Sweden would not be hit so hard after the first wave.
Staged by criticism from, among others, the Swedish king, the government in Stockholm tightened restrictions around Christmas, which means that Sweden’s strategy came much closer to other European countries and in some cases was stricter than Norway, Denmark and Finland.
But there are still concerns about the pressure on healthcare. Lena Hallengren, Sweden’s Minister of Social Affairs, said on Friday that she was in talks with Norway and Denmark about providing extra staff to help.
Much of the focus internationally has been on Sweden’s lack of a formal lockdown. But Swedish experts are increasingly saying that the issue was more a lack of rapid action in each of the pandemic waves, and a focus on just suppressing the virus enough for Swedish healthcare to survive.
“What in my opinion was missing in Sweden was early strictness. It is what you do early that determines what happens afterwards, says Annika Linde, Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist. “When it seems like new waves are starting, that’s when you need new constraints.”
Sweden opens up cautiously when more people are vaccinated. More than four out of five over the 60s have received a dose and almost all over the 80s are fully vaccinated.
Wisell said that Sweden’s infection rate remained high, although it declined in most regions except the northernmost part of the country, due to how it was affected compared to other European countries.
“We went late into the second wave and late into the third wave, and now we see that we come out late from the third wave. So I do not think it is particularly unexpected, she added.
Another change from Monday will mean that a negative Covid-19 test will no longer be required to enter Sweden from another Nordic country. The greater relief is due on July 1, when advice to only hang out with a small number of people will be released and the limits for private gatherings and events will be raised significantly.
The Prime Minister emphasized that while he was “prepared to stop the easing” if the situation deteriorated, Sweden could “glimpse the beginning of the end” of restrictions.
Linde said she feared that even Tuesday’s limited resumption sent out the wrong message. “Arguing and discussing makes people less likely to follow the advice given. All this hassle makes it even more difficult to take a coherent approach, she says.