Swedish PM rebuked over Covid deaths

Bloomberg

The prime minister of Sweden was forced to defend his Covid-19 strategy after opposition parties mounted a scathing attack on his government amid signs its handling of the pandemic has been fatally flawed.
With more than 4,500 Swedes now dead as a result of the coronavirus, and Sweden’s chief epidemiologist admitting mistakes, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was the target of a series of rebukes during a debate among party leaders broadcast.
Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the main opposition party known as the Moderates, said “there have been obvious, fundamental failures” in Sweden’s response to Covid-19.
Until now, lawmakers in Sweden had observed a tacit political truce when discussing the country’s Covid strategy. But that all changed last week, when state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell acknowledged that some of his decisions may have been misguided.
Since the virus hit, Tegnell has advised the government to leave most of society open, on an assumption that doing so would be more sustainable in the long run. But Sweden’s Covid mortality rate is now among the highest in the world, and many times higher than in the other Scandinavian countries. Like elsewhere, Sweden’s oldest citizens have been particularly hard hit.
“We didn’t get protective equipment to elderly care homes in time, although everyone knew that their residents were the most vulnerable,” Kristersson said. But Lofven said there’s no reason to abandon Sweden’s approach. “The strategy is the right one,” he said.
The prime minister acknowledged, however, that there was room for improvement. “We have far too many fatalities in elderly care.”
Pressure is mounting on Lofven as Sweden’s response to the virus puts it on a dramatically different path from countries that adopted much tougher lockdowns.
Swedes suddenly find themselves facing travel restrictions in the EU due to the high infection rate in their country.