Three countries, three different crown strategies: Sweden is one step ahead

Patients in the corona ward of the Lugano hospital.

Keystone

“Brutal,” says the 70-year-old Swiss woman who lives twenty kilometers from the Austrian border. “They can’t even go out. Like in prison, “he continues.” Hopefully they don’t have such an idea here. “He hardly ever sticks, says so and walks his dog.

The instructions of the Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are probably not in the hands of Eastern Switzerland alone. He has forbidden his compatriots to leave the house without good reason. “Each social contact is one too many,” says Kurz and calls for private meetings to be kept to a minimum. This strategy is similar to that in Germany and differs from Switzerland and even more so from the one that Sweden has followed since the start of the pandemic.

Sweden wants herd immunity

Three countries, three different strategies in the fight against the coronavirus. While Switzerland is trying to quell the pandemic wave as much as possible and at the same time protect people at risk in order to maintain the full functionality of hospitals, Sweden has worked for a long time in the direction of contamination and has given up on a complete blockade.

Voluntariness was part of the strategy. Sweden is now significantly tightening its measures. The toughest strategy of the three, however, is Austria, which helped spread the virus across Europe with shelter parties in Ischgl in February.

If you compare the current situation in these countries, you can see a steady decline in the number of infections in Switzerland over two weeks, currently reaching 4,560 new infections in the last 24 hours. Virginie Masserey of the Federal Office of Public Health says: “The measures are starting to affect the number of new infections”. However, the situation is still worrying, the reproduction number, the R value, too high, which has dropped to 0.81. In Austria, the new infections curve is still rising, but has not yet reached the Swiss record values ​​since the end of October.

The number of cases in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:

Sweden is still well below Switzerland

In Sweden, the number of coronary cases has recently increased significantly, reaching around 2,000 new infections per day. Internationally, the largest Nordic country still sits in the lower midfield and has only about a third of cases in Switzerland. Sweden is relatively on par with Germany and superior to its neighbors Denmark and Norway. At the same time, the death rate, which has been very low since the summer, is on the rise and hospitals in Sweden are also under increasing pressure.

The hospitalization curve continues to rise in Austria and Switzerland as well, but has flattened out slightly in our country. Regarding the number of ICU patients, the two neighboring countries are comparable to around 500 seriously ill patients. The Confederation yesterday reported 542 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care wards and that intensive care beds were fully occupied in one third of the cantons.

Patients in intensive care units in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:

A similar amount is being tested in all three countries

About the same amount is currently being tested in Switzerland, Austria and Sweden. However, the number of tests in Switzerland has decreased significantly in the last few days until yesterday 19495. The positivity rate of around 25% is similar in Switzerland and Austria, so the number of unreported cases is high in both countries. . Sweden is significantly lower with a 10 percent positivity rate.

Like Switzerland, Austria also took stricter measures at the end of October. For example, only up to six people could meet inside, while there were twelve outside. And where the distance could not be maintained, it was mandatory to wear a mask outdoors. The rules were similar to those in Switzerland, but are now much stricter.

Sweden is tightening the screw

And now the government in Sweden tightened the vine earlier in the week and issued bans, which is rare in relation to Corona. From Friday, after 10pm, alcohol will no longer be served; on November 24, public events will be limited to just eight people. For the first time, fines are also being threatened for violations. Theaters, concerts, demonstrations and sporting events are interested.

On the other hand, the ban does not apply to institutions such as libraries, swimming pools or schools – nor to private parties. Sweden has as little legal basis for this as for closing shops or restaurants – and the green left government has so far shown no intention of adapting the epidemic law accordingly.

Instead, Sweden continues its special path with recommendations. The government hopes that the few bans will affect behavior in all areas of life, even if the law does not provide for any regulation. One should not have dinner with friends and cancel invitations, said Prime Minister Stefan Löfven with a dramatically serious expression: “This is the new norm for the whole country.”

Meanwhile, stricter recommendations apply to virtually all of Sweden, originally intended only as local measures. These go far: the population is asked not to go to bars, restaurants, shopping centers, museums or swimming pools and to avoid public transport. So it is a recommended block. So far, however, the Swedes have reacted less obediently than in the spring; full buses and shopping malls testify to this. Therefore, Löfven said, his now stricter restrictions are needed.

In Sweden, the mask is not yet required

However, this does not apply to one industry: mouthguards are not recommended, much less prescribed, for the general public. It wasn’t until Tuesday that state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell once again confirmed his resistance to masks, after WHO warned Sweden. He judged the mouthguards “not yet a necessary measure,” Tegnell said. There was still a lack of clear scientific evidence of the benefits of masks in the population, the epidemiologist said.

And: other countries with mandatory face masks would still have high infection rates. With a large number of Swedish researchers and doctors, but also in comments in the media, criticism of Tegnell’s defensive position is growing. But the government has so far not intervened on this point.

It is interesting to see a scientific comparison between Sweden and neighboring countries, which have opted for an orderly block. Tegnell had always said that voluntary measures had the same effect as legal measures. The Swedes, in fact, have adapted their behavior independently, which can be seen, for example, in the comparison of mobility, which has been reduced by about the same amount.

Willingness to spend was similarly reduced in Denmark and Sweden. So there was a substantial voluntary blockade, but the spread of the virus was stopped far less in Sweden than in neighboring countries. Deaths were also higher. Volunteering in Sweden has shown that 18-29 year-olds are less cautious. However, Tegnell explains the many deaths in the spring from misconduct in elderly homes, which has now been improved.

If you look at the entire duration of the pandemic, Sweden, with a total of 6,225 deaths, has almost double the crown deaths than Switzerland with 3,300 deaths. In Austria there are even fewer deaths, with 1945 deaths.

Deaths in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria:

A look at the statistics shows, however, that Sweden is currently doing better than Austria and Switzerland, which are currently at the top of the world’s new confirmed infections per capita. Which strategy of these countries is the best will only be revealed when the pandemic is history.

It is undisputed that there are countries that have suffered much less from the coronavirus, such as New Zealand, whose R-value has never risen above 0.2. An isolated island, on the other hand, is easier with the choice of strategy.