Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has misunderstood the classification of his country by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a risk country for the new coronavirus. According to Tegnell, the architect of the loose Swedish corona approach, WHO has misinterpreted data on the outbreak in Sweden.
According to Tegnell, the fact that the number of registered cases in Sweden is increasing is that the country is carrying out significantly more tests than before. “It is incorrect to classify Sweden as countries that have not previously had any problems and which are apparently only at the beginning of their epidemic,” said Tegnell. According to him, the WHO would have obtained a more detailed picture of Sweden if he had contacted him.
The head of the European office of the WHO, Hans Kluge, spoke on Thursday about the rising corona figures in Europe. Thirty countries in the European region have reported an increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, the regional director said. In eleven countries, accelerated spread led to a significant resurgence of the coronavirus, Kluge said. Sweden was mentioned in the same breath with countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania and Ukraine. In those countries, the health system is likely to collapse under pressure if the spread of the lung virus is not effectively addressed, Kluge warned.
Sweden distinguished itself from other European countries by a looser approach to the corona virus. For example, cafes and restaurants were not closed. The population was mainly made aware of their own responsibility. The result of this approach is that both the contamination numbers and the death toll in Sweden are higher than in neighboring countries. In Sweden, the new coronavirus has been diagnosed in 63,890 people, of whom 5,230 have died.
