Architect of Sweden’s no lockdown coronavirus strategy says country should have done more to protect citizens
The man behind Sweden’s no lockdown coronavirus response today said the country could have done more to lessen the country’s death rate.
Nearly 4,500 Swedes have died during the pandemic, a higher mortality rate than in neighbouring Finland, Norway and Denmark, and criticism has been growing over the government’s decision not to impose a strict lockdown.
Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency and the man behind the country’s approach, said that in hindsight Sweden should have done more.
“If we were to run into the same disease, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would end up doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Tegnell told Swedish radio.
“Yes, I think we could have done better in what we did in Sweden, clearly.”
While most of Europe, including Denmark, Finland and Norway, closed shops, schools and businesses, Sweden has focused more on voluntary measures, social distancing and common-sense hygiene advice to slow the pandemic.
It shut care homes to visitors in late March, but around half of the deaths in the country have been among elderly people living in care facilities.
Tegnell said it was hard to know which alternative measures might have been most effective.
“Maybe we will find this out now that people have started removing measures, one at a time,” he said. “And then maybe we will get some kind of information on what, in addition to what we did, we could do without adopting a total lockdown.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said the government would launch an enquiry into the handling of the pandemic.