COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

ongoing COVID-19 viral pandemic in Sweden

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Sweden on 31 January 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden
Map of confirmed cases in Sweden
(absolute numbers)[1]
Map of confirmed cases in Sweden
(adjusted for population)[1]
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationSweden
First outbreakWuhan, Hubei, China
Index caseJönköping
Arrival date24 January 2020
(4 years, 2 months and 6 days)
Date13 May 11:30 CEST
Confirmed cases27,909[1]
Severe cases1,768 ICU hospitalisations[1]
Deaths
3,460[1][note 1]
Government website
Swedish Public Health Agency Covid-19
(in Swedish)

Cases change

The first case when a woman returning from Wuhan tested positive. On 26 February, following outbreaks in Italy and in Iran, multiple travel-related appeared in Sweden. The disease began to spread in the country was on 9 March in the Stockholm region. Since then, individuals in every län (county) have tested positive for COVID-19.

The first death was reported on 11 March in Stockholm, a case of community transmission.

Response change

Sweden has not created a lockdown, unlike many other countries, and kept large parts of its society open.

The Public Health Agency issued recommendations to: if possible, work from home; avoid unnecessary travel within the country; to engage in social distancing; and for people above 70 to stay at home, as much as possible.

Testing and numbers change

Sweden began testing for the virus in January, and by early May, about 148,000 tests had been performed. As of 13 May 2020, there were 27,909 confirmed cases, of which 1,768 received intensive care, and 3,460 deaths related to COVID-19 in Sweden.[1]

Notes change

  1. Data on new deaths is compiled by the Public Health Agency of Sweden at 11:30 CEST (UTC+02:00) each day from the communicable disease surveillance system SmiNet. Reports of new deaths to the Public Health Agency might be delayed by up to several days, especially around weekends, possibly introducing delays in reported number of cases for the last few days. In mid-April, approximately 30% of the cases were reported within 24 hours, 50% within 48 hours, and 90% within one week. Data from the Health Agency includes all deaths where a COVID-19 diagnosis had been confirmed (U07.1) during the past 30 days, including cases where the cause of death wasn't attributed to Covid-19 (as of data from the National Board of Health and Welfare from 21 April, this number amounted to 4.5% of cases confirmed in a laboratory), but excludes non-confirmed cases (U07.2). On 12 May, 87% of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were not confirmed in a laboratory. As this only includes cases confirmed in a laboratory, the actual number is believed to be higher due to the number of laboratory-confirmed cases only amounting to 70% (as of 3 May) of an excess mortality observed in Sweden since late March, according to a statistical analysis by the Public Health Agency based on data from from the Swedish Tax Agency and the European mortality monitoring activity (EuroMOMO). By late April, there had been approximately 2800 excess deaths in Sweden.[2][3]

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Antal fall av covid-19 i Sverige - data uppdateras dagligen kl 11.30". Public Health Agency of Sweden – Official statistics at arcgis (in Swedish). Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten). 2020-03-30. Retrieved 2020-04-09. Data updated daily at 11:30 [CET]
  2. "Faktablad: Beskrivning av datakällor för avlidna i covid-19" (PDF). Socialstyrelsen. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  3. "Statistik över antal avlidna i covid-19". Socialstyrelsen (in Swedish). Retrieved 12 May 2020.