STOCKHOLM (AP) – Health officials in Sweden, who chose not to impose a national blockade in response to the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, misjudged the power of the virus’s resurgence, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
“I think most people in the profession didn’t see this wave in front of them, they talked about different clusters,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told the Aftenposten newspaper.
Lofven, who leads a Social Democrat-Green Party coalition, spoke hours before a commission that has studied Sweden’s treatment of the pandemic has to publish its preliminary findings.
Over the summer, Sweden’s left-leaning minority government had said a commission would be appointed once the crisis was over, but came under pressure to act sooner.
Sweden’s statistical agency said Monday it recorded a total of 8,088 deaths from all causes in November, the highest mortality ever recorded in the Scandinavian country since the first year of Spanish flu that swept the world since 1918. until 1920.
In November 1918, 16,600 people died in the Scandinavian country, said Tomas Johansson of Statistics Sweden.
This year, Sweden has seen 320,098 coronavirus infections and 7,514 virus-related deaths, a much higher number than neighboring Norway, Finland or Denmark.
In the autumn, Sweden experienced a rapid increase in new coronavirus cases that strained its healthcare system. The infections have spread rapidly among Swedish medical staff, prompting the government to support further restrictions, including a national ban on the sale of alcohol after 10pm in bars and restaurants.
Sweden has also imposed tighter virus restrictions so far by banning public gatherings of more than eight people.
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Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
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