Stockholm faces local restrictions after ‘worrying’ infection signs

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has said there are rising rates of infection in Stockholm and some action may need to be taken

Credit: Claudio Bresciani /TT News Agency 

Sweden’s public health agency is discussing imposing new coronavirus restrictions on Stockholm after the city’s health chief warned of "worrying signs of increasing infection".

"Right now we are in discussions on whether we need to bring in additional restrictions to reduce the spread of infection in Stockholm," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. 

The plans for new restrictions came shortly after Stockholm health chief Björn Eriksson warned that the long decline in cases in the city had ended.

"The downwards trend is broken," he said at a press conference. "We can only hope that this is a blip, that the spread starts decreasing again." 

According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, Dr Tegnell’s agency, around 1,200 new cases and five deaths have been reported since Friday, a sharp increase on the average of around 200 cases per day seen in recent weeks.

Sweden, which chose to keep most schools, restaurants, bars, offices and shopping centres open throughout the pandemic, has suffered one of the highest death rates in Europe during the pandemic.

At 580 deaths per million, its death rate sits just behind those of the UK and Italy, and is more than ten times that of neighbouring Norway and is five times that of Denmark.  

Sweden has gone from having one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in Europe, to one of the lowest

Since the number of cases peaked at the end of June, Sweden has, however, seen falling rates of infection, while Denmark and Norway, which instituted far-reaching lockdowns, have seen case numbers rising.  

"Many of us thought, and we’ve also talked about it a lot, that we could expect a bit of an increase in the autumn when people get back to their old routines and come back to their workplaces," Dr Tegnell said.

Unlike a similar blip at the end of the summer, which was confined to people in their 20s, cases were now rising among people in their 40s and 50s, and also among upper secondary school students, he said.  

An outbreak in the rural, central region of Dalarna had been linked to ice hockey teams, so local authorities hoped to bring it under control without imposing restrictions on the general public.

In Stockholm, however, infections were more widespread within the population, making city-wide measures more likely. As no final decisions have been taken, Dr Tegnell refused to be drawn on what the measures might be. 

So far, he stressed, Sweden’s hospitals had not been affected by the rising number of infections.

"It has not affected healthcare at all — yet, one should probably say, as there is always a time lag — but the number of cases in intensive care is still very low, and the number of deaths is still very low. It’s important that we don’t lose control so that we get a big influx into healthcare again."