Sweden has not seen any evidence that herd immunity is helping to slow the spread of coronavirus in their country, according to the country’s top expert on infectious diseases.
“The issue of herd immunity is difficult,” Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell explained to Bloomberg News during a news conference.
Top epidemiologist says Sweden has no signs of herd immunity curbing coronavirus https://t.co/jB1mCdX31Q pic.twitter.com/Fpn1fHfQ9K
— The Hill (@thehill) November 25, 2020
“We see no signs of immunity in the population that are slowing down the infection right now,” Tegnell added.
Sweden has seen a rise in coronavirus cases in the past few weeks. So far, the country has reported about half a million cases of coronavirus, along with 6,555 recorded deaths from the virus, according to a global coronavirus map by John Hopkins University & Medicine.
While many countries across the world imposed lockdowns in order to slow the spread to the virus, Sweden went with a different route. (RELATED: 4-6 Week Nationwide Lockdown Could Curb The Pandemic And Jumpstart The Economy, Biden COVID Advisor Says)
“In common with other countries we’re trying to slow down the spread as much as possible … To imply that we let the disease run free without any measure to try to stop it is not true,” Tegnell stated.
“I want to make it clear, no, we did not lock down like many other countries, but we definitely had a virtual lockdown,” Tegnell explained. “Swedes changed their behavior enormously. We stopped traveling even more than our neighboring countries. The airports had no flights anywhere, the trains were running at a few per cent of normal service, so there were enormous changes in society.”