Coronavirus: Sweden’s Unusual Prevention Approach That Initially Appeared Effective Fails As Death Figures Surge

Sweden has passed the milestone of 1,500 coronavirus deaths, far exceeding the tolls of neighboring countries – Norway and Denmark – which suggests that the country may be nearing its peak despite its adopted light-touch approach to curtail spread of the virus.

In line with health experts’ advice, various countries adopted social distancing and stay-at-home measures to flatten the curve.

However, Sweden took an unusual turn of a ‘wait and see approach’. While Denmark and Norway closed their borders and imposed strict regulations on their residents, Sweden did the opposite, with its light-touch approach.

Sweden’s approach allows citizens continue their everyday life activities with only a urge from authorities to take personal responsibility for observing social distancing guidelines, rather than strictly enforcing the rules on citizens.

Schools, cafes, restaurants, shops remain open, as are the borders of the country. It also only banned gatherings of more than 50 people.

In its light-touch approach, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven asked – rather than ordered – all citizens to avoid non-essential travel and for those who feel ill or are over the age of 70 to stay home.

This is a far cry from many of the stricter emergency measures put in place and being observed in other Nordic countries like Denmark and Norway.

Infact, despite the ban on visits to nursing home for elderly in Sweden, numerous reports in the country’s news media have shown how badly the nursing homes were starting to be hit by the coronavirus.

Reports say hundreds of cases have already been confirmed at homes in Stockholm, the worst affected region.

This approach has led to numerous concerns as scientists and world leaders express worry over the ‘unusual method’ taken by the country.

In his defense, Löfven in a televised speech said;

For us adults need to be exactly that: adults. Not spread panic or rumours. No one is alone in this crisis, but each person carries a heavy responsibility.

Regarding questions on how successful the approach has been, the Swedish Institute of Public Health’s daily briefing as of March 30 stated that the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the country passed 4,000, which is very similar to the rate in Norway strictly observing social distancing.

However, reports by Forbes has said the simple reason for the relatively low infection numbers is due to the low testing rate which makes it impossible to know the true spread of the illness.

While the infection numbers are difficult to compare, the difference in death rate is on a fast rise.

On March 30, Coronavirus death increased to 146 in Sweden while death cases in Norway, which is strict on restriction order, stands at 32.

As of Sunday April 19th, Public Health Agency of Sweden had reported 1,540 deaths tied to Covid-19, an additional 29 deaths from Saturday.

That’s considerably more than the rest of Scandinavia, but much less than in Italy, Spain and the U.K.

It was gathered that the untimely failure to protect people in nursing homes has stood out as a clear weakness, which has contributed to higher death rates than in neighboring countries.

Just two weeks ago, Prime Minister Lofven suggested the government may need to review its approach amid the prospect of thousands of Swedish deaths.

Lofven somewhat admitting a wrong in the country’s method said;

The protection for people in elderly care should have been better. We need to look closer at what has gone wrong.

22 researchers have also publicly criticized the strategy and called on politicians to make changes.

One of the researchers, Lena Einhorn, a virologist who has been one of the leading domestic critics of Sweden’s coronavirus policy, told the Observer that the government and the health agency were still resisting the most obvious explanations.

She said;

They have to admit that it’s a huge failure, since they have said the whole time that their main aim has been to protect the elderly.

But what is really strange is that they still do not acknowledge the likely route. They say it’s very unfortunate, that they are investigating, and that it’s a matter of the training personnel, but they will not acknowledge that presymptomatic or asymptomatic spread is a factor.

She argues that the reason why Sweden has a much higher number of cases in care homes than in Norway and Finland is not because of the homes themselves, but because of Sweden’s decision to keep schools and kindergartens open, and not to shut restaurants or bars, Forbes reports.

The Swedish Public Health Authority’s Anders Tegnell has responded angrily to the criticisms.

At a press conference, he said their strategy was well-developed, contrary to criticism.

Tegnell believes the figures being reported are not correct and that there are “a number of fundamental errors.”

He also pointed out that some countries, such as Italy, only record deaths that occur in hospitals.

With the increasing number of death rate in Sweden which suggests that the light-touch approach has failed, social distancing appears to be the only known and effective measure to militate against the spread of Coronavirus globally.

As at press time, there are 14,385 Coronavirus cases and 1,540 deaths in Sweden.