The pandemic is over says Sweden’s Health Minister

Sweden has scrapped almost all of its pandemic restrictions and has stopped most testing for Covid-19 with the health minister claiming that the pandemic is over.

The statement from Minister of Health Lena Hallengren comes despite pressure on the healthcare systems remaining high and some scientists begged for more patience in fighting the disease.

Sweden’s government, has opted against lockdowns in favour of a voluntary approach throughout the pandemic, announced last week it would scrap the remaining restrictions as vaccines and the less severe Omicron variant have cushioned severe cases and deaths.

“As we know this pandemic, I would say it’s over,” Minister of Health Lena Hallengren told Dagens Nyheter. “It’s not over, but as we know it in terms of quick changes and restrictions it is,” she said, adding that Covid-19 would no longer be classified as a danger to society.

As of Wednesday, bars and restaurants will be allowed to stay open after 11 p.m. again, and with no limits on the number of guests. Attendance limits for larger indoor venues were also lifted, as was the use of vaccine passes.

Swedish hospitals are still feeling the strain with around 2,200 people requiring hospital care, about the same as during the third wave in the spring of 2021. Free testing was reduced earlier this month and effectively stopped from Wednesday, no one knows the exact number of cases in the country.

“We should have a little more patience, wait at least a couple of more weeks. And we are wealthy enough to keep testing,” Fredrik Elgh, Professor of Virology at Umea University and one of the staunchest critics of Sweden’s no-lockdown policy, told Reuters.

“The disease is still a huge strain on society,” he said.

Sweden’s Health Agency said this week that large-scale testing was too expensive in relation to the benefits. Sweden spent around 500 million Swedish crowns (48 million euros) per week on testing for the first five weeks of this year and around 24 billion crowns (2 billion euros) since the start of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, Sweden registered 114 coronavirus related deaths taking the total to 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 Nordic neighbours but lower than in most European countries.

With Sweden declaring the pandemic is over pressure will mount on other governments to follow suit and to choose a different approach.

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