STILL NO LOCKDOWN
Sweden has more coronavirus deaths per capita than any country in world this week – after refusing to impose lockdown
by Mark Hodge
SWEDEN has the highest Covid-19 death rate per capita in the world over the past week – after refusing to impose a lockdown.
The Scandinavian country has recorded 5.59 deaths for every one million per day for the past seven days to May 29, according to figures by Our World in Data, a research publication based at the University of Oxford.
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The next on the list, in terms of highest weekly rolling average, is Brazil (4.51) followed by San Marino (4.21), Peru (4.12) and then the United Kingdom (3.78).
Despite its reluctance to impose a lockdown during the outbreak, the country does not have the highest death rate per million since the pandemic started.
As of May 29, San Marino tops the tragic list with 1,238.55 per million followed by Belgium (810.04), Andora (660.07), the UK (557.36) and Italy (548.15).
DEADLY VIRUS
Sweden's overall death rate per million is 422.41.
Spain's data has not been released for May 29 but it is estimated to have an overall death rate of 580.03 per million.
Sweden’s strategy of keeping most schools, restaurants, bars and businesses open even as much of Europe hunkered down exposed it to criticism with death rates running far higher than in their Nordic neighbours.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care in Sweden has fallen by a third from the peak in late April and health authorities say the outbreak is slowing.
However, a Swedish study found that just 7.3 per cent of Stockholmers developed Covid-19 antibodies by late April, fuelling concern that the country's strategy may bring little herd immunity in the near future.
So-called herd immunity is where enough people in a population have developed immunity to an infection to be able to effectively stop that disease from spreading.
The findings were roughly in line with models predicting a third of the Swedish capital’s population would have had the virus by now and where at least limited herd immunity could have set in, the Swedish Health Agency said.
Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said: “It is a little bit lower (than expected) but not remarkably lower, maybe one or a couple of percent.
“It squares pretty well with the models we have.”
However, the herd immunity concept is untested for the novel coronavirus and the extent and duration of immunity among recovered patients is equally uncertain as well.
The study drew on some 1,100 tests from across the country although only figures for Stockholm were released.
Meanwhile, Norway and Denmark will allow tourists to travel between their two countries from mid-June, however crossings into Sweden will remain restricted.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said excluding the country from moves to open borders across the Nordic region would be a political decision and not justifiable on health grounds.
She also added that the coronavirus spread and death rate was higher in the Copenhagen area than in the Swedish region Skane that borders Denmark.
Thousands of people are also exempt from the travel restrictions and commute daily between Denmark and southern Sweden.
Sweden has advised all its citizens against travelling abroad until July 15.