Swedish health authorities accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of Misinterpreting data by including Sweden in a list of eleven European countries where the coronavirus has re-emerged The last weeks.
The WHO regional director, Hans Henri Kluge, had pointed out that in these countries (most of them ex-Soviet republics) there have been “very significant outbreaks”, a statement that the Swedish authorities consider wrong because they believe that it does not reflect the reality of the evolution of the pandemic.
Sweden has opted in recent weeks to carry out more tests on the population, doubling the number of people examined, which in turn has led to an increase in cases, although the authorities highlight that most of them are mild.
“Unfortunately, this is a totally wrong interpretation of the data,” chief epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency, Anders Tegnell, told SVT television.
Tegnell stressed that Sweden is now doing “many more tests” and that it is “unfortunate” to mix it with countries that have had no problems so far and are in an early phase of the epidemic.
If the WHO had contacted the Swedish authorities, they could have given a “more nuanced” picture of the coronavirus situation in this Nordic country.
“It is very serious (pointing to Sweden as a risk country), especially in a situation where there are many discussions about which countries you can travel to, these types of statements are very unfortunate”Tegnell reiterated.
Strategy criticized
In his appearance, the Swedish chief epidemiologist had already referred to the largest number of cases, highlighting that the majority were mild and that it was a positive aspect, since more people would discover that they have the virus and can take steps not to transmit it.
Sweden so far it has recorded 63,890 cases and 5,230 deaths from COVID 19, with a death rate five times higher than that of Denmark, nine times that of Finland and ten times that of Norway, although below the most severely punished countries such as Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
The high mortality has led to increased criticism of the authorities for adopting a softer strategy, which has included many recommendations to the population to try to protect risk groups and some restrictions, although bars, restaurants and schools.
The number of deaths has been slowly reduced since mid-April, although it still remains above the rest of the Nordic countries, which did opt for more restrictions but did not confine the population either.
Tegnell noted that Sweden has not had a higher than usual mortality for weeks and that the number of patients in intensive care remains at a low level, below 200 for the first time in months, as reported by SVT.
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