STOCKHOLM – An exercise enters the Odenplan metro station in central Stockholm, where morning commuters get off or board before sitting down to read their smartphones.
Whether on trains or trams, in supermarkets or grocery malls, places where masks are used in much of the world, Swedes live without them.
When top European countries locked up their populations at the beginning of the pandemic through final schools, restaurants, gymnasiums and even borders, swedes continued with many freedoms.
The low-profile strategy has captured the world’s attention, but at the same time it has coincided with a much more consistent and consistent per capita mortality rate than in other Nordic countries.
Today, as the number of infections in much of Europe increases, the country of another 10 million people has one of the lowest numbers of new coronavirus cases, and only 14 viral patients in intensive care.
However, the good luck of the Swedish strategy remains very uncertain.
His fitness authorities, and in particular the leading epidemiologist, Dr. Anders Tegnell, continue to repeat a family warning: it is too early to say, and all countries are at another stage of the pandemic.
That has not prevented a World Health Organization official in Europe from saying that the continent may be informed of broader classes in Sweden that may be war on the virus elsewhere.
“We will have to acknowledge that Sweden, for the time being, has shied away from the construction seen in some of the other western European countries,” WHO Emergency Manager for Europe Catherine Smallwood said Thursday. “I think there are classes for that. We will be very willing to paint and hear more about the Swedish approach. “
According to the European Centre for Disease Control, Sweden has reported 30. 3 new cases of COVID-19 consisting of 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, with 292. 2 in Spain, 172. 1 in France, 61. 8 in the United Kingdom and 69. 2 in Denmark, all taxes strict closures at the beginning of the pandemic.
Overall, Sweden has reported 88,237 infections and 5,864 deaths from the virus, or 57. 5 deaths consisting of 100,000 inhabitants since the onset of the crisis.
How Sweden’s outdoor strategy was perceived, it turns out that the country largely has the pandemic level that the observer was experiencing at the time. At first, many were disbelievers at photographs of Swedes having dinner with friends in restaurants or drinking. cocktails on Stockholm’s waterfront. Some were envious that Swedish companies didn’t have to close.
Then came the surprise when the virus destroyed nurses and hospices in the country.
By mid-April, more than a hundred deaths were reported each day in Sweden, while mortality rates were falling elsewhere in Europe.
Today, as fears of a momentary wave grow across Europe, it is elegant to congratulate Sweden, with newscasts from France, the United Kingdom, and travel to Stockholm to inquire about its success.
But a Swedish government commission investigating pandemic control will undoubtedly have tough questions to answer: Has the government waited too long to restrict access to retirement homes, where some of the deaths occurred? Were they too slow to provide non-public services? protective devices in those homes when gaps in the elderly care sector were known for a long time Why did it take so long to put large-scale tests in place?
Tegnell also refuses to rule out a momentary wave of coronavirus infections in Sweden. A specific fear is the return of academics to momentary schools for the first time since March.
“We have to be very careful and locate the first sign that anything is so that we can do everything we can to prevent this from getting worse,” he told The Associated Press.
Localized epidemics are expected, but instead of combating them with national standards, officials plan to use targeted movements based on detection, contact location and immediate isolation of patients.
“It is very important that we have an immediate and local reaction to combating the virus without imposing restrictions for the whole country,” Health Minister Lena Hallengren said last week.
From the outset, fitness officials argued that Sweden was looking for a sustainable technique for the virus that other people could simply adopt, for years, if necessary. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he has a repeated slogan through ministers in each and every one. opportunity, as there is still no vaccine or cure.
While the rest of the world watched with envy at the freedoms enjoyed by Swedes amid locks elsewhere, there were not as many as other people assumed. Meetings were limited to 50 and rallies in bars were prohibited.
Most of the adjustments concerned voluntary movements through citizens, referred to rules imposed by the government.
This public confidence in assuming duty to the pandemic puts Sweden at odds with other countries that have used coercive measures as fines to force compliance.
This is attributed to a Model of Swedish Governance, in which a giant public government composed of experts expands and presents measures to which small ministries deserve to stick. In other words, others accept moderate policies as true to experts and scientists, and the government accepts as true with others that they adhere to the guidelines.
The Swedes were asked to paint from home when possible and to maintain a social distance, and complained about it. While other people now use public transport without a mask, there are also far fewer people traveling to work than before.
Unlike most European countries that have made the use of masks mandatory in public spaces, Sweden does not present its use on a large scale and others largely adhere to this proposal.
Health officials say that the mask used outdoors in fitness services through unslucky personnel can give a false sense of security that you can see in poor physical condition that other people leave their homes and forget about social estating. Transparent regulations that can stay in place for long periods: stay at home in case of COVID-19 symptoms, maintain intelligent hand hygiene and maintain social distance.
In a country the length of California with a quarter of the state’s population, or 41 million, and with low degrees of transmission, Swedes at their best think it makes no sense to dress in a mask.
Carol Rosengard, 61, who runs a center for young people with disabilities, saw others dressed in a mask inappropriately or smoking a cigarette or drinking water.
“That’s not how they deserve to be treated,” Rosengard said, explaining his for not enforcing regulations on face masks in the population.
This vision is shared by Hallengren, the Minister of Health, who does absolutely rule out the effectiveness of the mask and sees its usefulness in cases of serious local epidemics, while rejecting general regulations for the whole country.
“People may not wear a mask for years,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed.
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Track the AP pandemic in http://apnews. com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews. com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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