Rise in Covid-19 cases prompts fears of harsh 2nd wave in Sweden

A rapid increase in new Covid-19 cases and deaths in Sweden recently has stoked fears that the second wave of the virus could be as bad as the first, reported EFE-EPA.

Sweden was the worst-hit nation in Scandinavia the first time around, but it maintains relatively lax measures compared to its European counterparts and does not enforce mask use.

During the first wave of Covid-19, Sweden’s infection numbers and death toll were five times higher than Denmark’s and 10 times higher than Norway’s.

The numbers came down slowly over the summer and the country’s infection rates fell below that of its neighbors.

Just a month ago, the public health agency’s chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, spoke of the “Swedish exception” as the country seemed to be eluding soaring infection rates across the rest of the continent.

But the second wave appears to have caught up with Sweden in the last two weeks.

The number of Covid-19 patients being admitted to hospitals has doubled and one in three people in intensive care has the disease.

On Friday, Swedish health authorities logged 5,990 new cases in one day, a record, and 42 deaths in the same period, the highest 24-hour toll since June.

Sweden has a 14-day cumulative incidence rate of 485.3 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, which ranks it 20th out of 31 European countries.

Far from the worst-affected European nation it may be, but Sweden’s incidence rate is almost double that of Denmark and three times that of Norway.

Just one month ago, the country’s incidence rate had been lower than Denmark and Norway, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

“(Hospital) capacity at a national level is still good,” Johanna Sandwall, head of the public health emergency response at the social affairs ministry, said this week.

She added that a third of the country’s ICU beds were free and the access to key resources was better than during the first wave.

Tengell said Sweden was at a different point in the evolution of the second Covid-19 wave compared to other European nations, which began to experience an uptick in cases at the end of the summer.

“The situation is worse than we thought,” Tegnell said.

In 17 of Sweden’s 21 regions recommendations are in place urging people to limit social contact to their family circle, work from home and avoid commercial establishments.

In 12 regions, including the capital Stockholm, authorities have detected the virus in older people’s care homes and have warned that testing capacity is at its limit.

Prime minister Stefan Löfven has warned that “dark times” were coming and that all of the health indicators were pointing in “the wrong direction.”

The government announced a ban on alcohol sales in hostelry establishments from 10 pm.

Restaurants and bars must close by 10.30 pm.

Similar measures have been adopted across Europe but the restriction on hospitality is drastic in Sweden, where the official coronavirus response has been to call on individual responsibility.

Despite the outlook, the public health agency has held firm on its current restrictions and has decided against toughening them like the Danish and the Norwegians have done.

Denmark and Norway have recommended mask use in certain public places, but Sweden still only requires it for hospital and care home workers. It has focused its policy on hand-washing and social distancing.

“Believing that masks are our salvation is dangerous,” Tegnell told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in an interview this week.