Day: March 2, 2021

Sweden has avoided a COVID-19 lockdown so far: Has its strategy worked?

On: March 2, 2021

In: News

Yet as with so much of the data relating to COVID-19, proponents of the policy say that reading the data is a matter of perspective. Sweden may be faring comparably better in terms of excess deaths -- those greater than the usual number of deaths expected in a certain time period. Experts say excess deaths can indicate whether policies intended to combat the pandemic have unintended consequences, such as delaying treatment for other ailments and is an important measure of the overall efficacy of policy. While still performing worse than other Nordic countries on data from Eurostat, the official European Union statistics agency, and the University of Oxford, shows that Sweden recorded 7.9% excess deaths last year compared to the years 2016-19, according to the independent health news site Dagens Medicin. That means that the country had the 23rd lowest annual excess deaths out of 30 European countries -- lower than the U.K. (15.1%), France (10.4%) and Spain (18.9%). Sweden also has a lower number of coronavirus deaths per million than those countries, all of which have gone under strict lockdowns during the pandemic. Pointing to the recent excess mortality studies, Nils Karlson, an economist and political scientist who jointly wrote an op-ed last year in Foreign Affairs entitled “Sweden’s Coronavirus Strategy Will Soon Be the World’s,” is more optimistic. “There was some recent figures showing that if you count excess mortality, Sweden is one of the best countries in Europe,” he told ABC News. “And one of the reason is, of course, that we didn't get the flu, just the ordinary flu, because we wash our hands. We have social distancing. We didn't have as many car accidents. You know, all kinds of other stuff that that affects us didn't happen this year.” The resistance to lockdown, he said, is based on the idea that they are “unsustainable,” he said, and Sweden’s strategy takes into account not just economic factors, but all aspects of public life. While acknowledges the COVID death toll was too high, he said: “You have to keep society open not only for economic reasons, but also for critical public functions to to function, like hospitals, schools and so on. Schools are still open for younger kids... Otherwise, it's remote learning. But I think it has worked fairly well.”

Sweden’s novel approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic has drawn both praise and fierce criticism, not just inside the Scandinavian country, but across the Western world. The country has so far resisted going into lockdown, unlike the rest of Europe, even during the peak of its second wave over Christmas.Continue Reading

Coronavirus Statistics

Sweden 900,138

Sweden

Confirmed: 900,138

Active: 150,557

Recovered: 735,793

Death: 13,788
Denmark 242,633

Denmark

Confirmed: 242,633

Active: 9,012

Recovered: 231,166

Death: 2,455
Lithuania 233,631

Lithuania

Confirmed: 233,631

Active: 18,460

Recovered: 211,411

Death: 3,760
Estonia 117,554

Estonia

Confirmed: 117,554

Active: 14,583

Recovered: 101,879

Death: 1,092
Latvia 111,334

Latvia

Confirmed: 111,334

Active: 7,337

Recovered: 101,944

Death: 2,053
Norway 107,510

Norway

Confirmed: 107,510

Active: 17,850

Recovered: 88,952

Death: 708
Finland 84,131

Finland

Confirmed: 84,131

Active: 37,244

Recovered: 46,000

Death: 887
Iceland 6,286

Iceland

Confirmed: 6,286

Active: 73

Recovered: 6,184

Death: 29