Swedish News, May 11:

31 new deaths - 3,256 in total. / Immunity at 40 percent? / Sweden's path to beating the pandemic. 

  • View of Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town with Skeppsholmen in the foreground. Photo: Stockholm Visitors Board

  • 31 new deaths - 3,256 in total
    The latest public health statistics show that a total of 3,256 people have died in the suites of covid-19 in Sweden. Another 31 deaths from corona were registered in Sweden on Monday. After the weekend's 50 deaths, the total death toll in the country is now 3,256 and a total of 26,670 have been confirmed infected by the corona virus in Sweden. 1,738 receive or have received intensive care in the country, but the number of patients in intensive care is now below 500, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare.

  • Guards at the Royal Palace, Stockholm. Photo: Bo Zaunders

  • Immunity at 40 percent?
    The spread of infection in Stockholm may stop as early as mid-June, according to mathematics professor Tom Britton's calculations, Svenska Dagbladet writes. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell also thinks that the projection could be correct but stresses that the danger is far from over. Britton claims to have used a simple model with the reproduction number 2.5 (when each person on average infects 2.5 people) and then concluded that the herd immunity occurs at about 40-45% instead of 60. Why the R-number matters: Why societies shut down

  • A powerful photo from the Stockholm outer archipelago by photographer Sören Colbing/Nordic Reach.

  • Sweden's path to beating the pandemic
    Sweden, in comparison with its neighboring countries, has high numbers of deaths. While statistics that relate deaths per one million population are much lower than the hardest hit countries in Europe, such as England, Italy, Spain or France and Belgium they are three times higher than for instance neighboring Denmark and even higher when compared to deaths in Finland or Norway. A different path was chosen to fight the pandemic by Sweden in comparison with many other countries. Which is the right path, if one exists, will be shown in the long run. Since only parts of society were closed down and the government’s restrictions less stringent, the pandemic seems to have had a lesser impact on the economy in Sweden. While for instance unemployment is also rising sharply in Sweden, it’s less than in many other parts of the world: in one year, unemployment has risen from 6.7% to, at the end of April, 8.1%.