Sweden’s Prime Minister orders a public inquiry into the country’s handling of coronavirus

Sweden’s Prime Minister orders a public inquiry into the country’s handling of coronavirus amid rising criticism of its soft lockdown as its death toll passes 5,000 – the fifth-highest in the world per capita.

SWEDEN approached the coronavirus pandemic in a different way from most other countries, schools stayed open, there was little or no social distancing, shops, bars, restaurants all were pretty much ‘business as usual.’

Many critics of the lockdowns which were imposed all over the world by worried governments sited Sweden as the country that ‘got it right,’ there was (to begin with at least), good reports on the infection numbers, and deaths were low in Sweden, so they must have been doing it right, without hurting their economy.

Well, all that seems to be changing rather rapidly now, as Sweden is rapidly becoming the new epicentre in Europe for infections and deaths.

More than 5,300 Swedes have died compared to around 250 in Norway, 600 in Denmark and 325 in Finland, all of which have populations around half the size.

Sweden, unlike the rest of Scandinavia, chose not to close restaurants, bars, schools and shops to fight the spread of the virus.

It’s per capita death rate has soared to fifth-highest in the world, after Belgium, the UK, Spain and Italy, despite the country being sparsely populated and equipped with exemplary hospitals.

“It is not a question of whether Sweden is going to change as a result of this – the question is how,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told a news conference on Tuesday.

With a new enquiry demanded by Sweden’s Prime Minister there will be particular emphasis on reporting on elderly care.

On Tuesday, the country of 10.3 million inhabitants reported a total of 68,451 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and 5,333 deaths.