Sweden declares pandemic over, despite warnings from scientists

STOCKHOLM • Sweden has scrapped almost all of its few pandemic restrictions and stopped most testing for Covid-19, even as pressure on the healthcare systems remained high and some scientists begged for more patience in fighting the virus.

The Swedish government, which throughout the pandemic has opted against lockdowns in favour of a voluntary approach, announced last week that it would scrap the remaining restrictions - effectively declaring the pandemic over - as vaccines and the less severe Omicron variant have cushioned severe cases and deaths.

"As we know it, this pandemic I would say, it's over," Minister of Health Lena Hallengren told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. "It's not over, but as we know it, in terms of quick changes and restrictions it is." She added that Covid-19 would no longer be classified as a danger to society.

Bars and restaurants are now allowed to stay open after 11pm again, and with no limits on the number of guests. Attendance limits for larger indoor venues were also lifted on Wednesday, as was the use of vaccine passes.

Swedish hospitals are still feeling the strain, however, with around 2,200 Covid-19 patients requiring hospital care, about the same as during the third wave in the spring of last year.

As free testing was reduced earlier this month and effectively stopped from Wednesday, no one knows the exact number of cases.

"We should have a little more patience, wait at least a couple of more weeks. And we are wealthy enough to keep testing," Dr Fredrik Elgh, professor of virology at Umea University and one of the staunchest critics of Sweden's no-lockdown policy, said. "The disease is still a huge strain on society."

Sweden's Health Agency said this week that large-scale testing was too expensive in relation to the benefits. Sweden spent around 500 million crowns (S$73 million) a week on testing for the first five weeks of this year and around 24 billion crowns since the start of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, Sweden had 114 new deaths where the deceased were infected with the virus. In total, 16,182 people have died either of the virus or while infected by it. The number of deaths per capita is much higher than among its Nordic neighbours but lower than in most European countries.

European Union officials said they are cautiously welcoming a "stabilisation" of the latest wave of the pandemic but know the bloc must do more to help poorer nations.

"Saying that we have turned the corner... is not a phrase that at least I would use," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters while attending a joint meeting of the bloc's health and foreign ministers in Lyon, France. "We are seeing in the last seven to eight weeks a stabilisation in the number of hospitalisations and mortality... and we are seeing in some member states that they have reached the peak with Omicron." But, she added, "we need to continue to be cautious", given the curveballs the coronavirus and its successive variants have thrown over the past two years.

Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza echoed the wariness, saying "the game is not closed", but that "all European countries are moving towards the management of a new phase" of the pandemic.

Several EU countries, such as France, Spain, Italy and Belgium, are seeing case numbers fall, suggesting they have passed their peak of the current wave. But others, including Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia, are seeing cases rise, or at least plateauing at a stubborn level.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE