World

Positive COVID-19 Cases Drop In No-Lockdown Sweden, Marking The Lowest Rate Since The Pandemic Began

(Shutterstock/plo)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Chris White Tech Reporter
Font Size:

Sweden’s positive coronavirus cases dropped after the country carried out a record number of COVID-19 tests recently, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Swedish health officials.

The country saw only 1,300 positive cases out of 120,000 tests last week, representing a 1.2% positive rate, Sweden’s health agency said Tuesday, according to the Reuters report. The low number of cases is the lowest Sweden has seen since the pandemic, which originated in China, first emerged in Europe, the report noted.

“The purpose of our approach is for people themselves to understand the need to follow recommendations and guidelines that exist,” Swedish Health Agency Director-General Johan Carlson said at a news conference, according to Reuters. (RELATED: Coronavirus Not Spreading Among Students, Swedish And German Health Professionals Say)

Sweden has downplayed the need for severe lockdowns to slow the spread of coronavirus, which has reportedly killed more than 898,000 people worldwide, according to data from John Hopkins University. More than 5,800 people have died in Sweden from the virus, a number lower than Italy and Spain but high among neighboring Nordic countries, data show.

Spain and France are contending with surges while Sweden’s positive case numbers are dropping, Reuters noted. Sweden has encouraged citizens to wear masks, keep a distance from one another and practice proper hygiene rather than instituting strict lockdowns, which have resulted in a severe economic downturn and mass unemployment elsewhere.

TOPSHOT - A photo taken in the late hours of May 29, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus. - President Donald Trump said May 29, 2020, he was breaking off US ties with the World Health Organization, which he says failed to do enough to combat the initial spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT – A photo taken in the late hours of May 29, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

“We probably have a lower risk of spread here compared to other countries,” Jonas Ludvigsson, a professor of epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, told Reuters. “I think we benefit a lot from that now,” he added, referring to what he believes is Sweden’s high level of immunity.

Some health experts and media commentators have criticized Sweden’s approach.

“It seems some numbers need to be repeated. Sweden has 5,837 dead in COVID-19. A proportion five times higher than Denmark,” an editorial in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter noted.

Sweden did not focus enough on the country’s nursing homes, where more than half of the country’s deaths have transpired, according to Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist, Annike Linde.

“There was no strategy at all for the elderly, I now understand,” Linde told Swedish Radio, according to a June Guardian report about comments from a chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell.

Tegnell said in June, “I do not understand how they can stand and say the level of preparedness was good, when in fact it was lousy.”

Nearly half of all coronavirus-related deaths in Europe have occurred in nursing homes, according to The Washington Post, citing World Health Organization data in April. More than 68,600 residents and staff at nursing homes and long-term facilities across the United States have died from the coronavirus, out of more than 163,000 overall deaths, AP reported Monday, citing a running tally of data the outlet has collected so far.

The New York Times published a report in June indicating that more than 43% of deaths nationwide were in nursing homes.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel