Sweden’s coronavirus strategy has always stood out from the crowd. That distinctive approach is now coming to an end. The government this week proposed an emergency law that would allow it to lock down large parts of society; the first recommended use of face masks came into force; and the authorities gave schools the option to close for pupils older than 13 – all changes to its strategy to combat the pandemic.
“I don’t think Sweden stands out [from the rest of the world] very much right now,” said Jonas Ludvigsson, professor of clinical epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. “Most of the things that made Sweden different have changed – either in Sweden or elsewhere.”
There has been no public abandoning of its approach – which drew huge international attention for its lack of formal lockdown and use of face masks. Instead, there has been a gradual shift in various policies as the winter Covid-19 wave has hit Sweden far harder than health officials or politicians expected.
Sweden has reported more than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths in a month and 535 in the past eight days alone. This compares with 465 for the pandemic as a whole in neighboring Norway, which has half the population. As Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf said just before Christmas: “We have failed.”