April 7th:
Sweden's government will get extra powers to make fast decisions in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
A new bill which would allow the government to take measures -- such as closing schools, shopping malls, or restaurants -- without first getting parliamentary approval, now has enough support in parliament to be passed, following discussion with the main opposition parties.
The law is set to apply from April 18th to June 30th, and will only apply to measures related to the coronavirus crisis.
"We are now experiencing a historically difficult situation and we need opportunities to make difficult decisions if necessary," said Health Minister Lena Hallengren. "Even if parliament works fast, it can mean that we lose days. We are not prepared to take that risk."
Hallengren added that the government does not currently have concrete plans for any measures it would take under the new law.
A total of 591 people have died with the coronavirus in Sweden. That's an increase from 477 confirmed deaths on April 6th, but there is a delay in how the statistics are reported by regional health authorities, so the increase does not equal the number of deaths in the last 24 hours.
"We are averaging around 40 deaths per 24 hours," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters at the Public Health Agency's daily briefing at 2pm.
Norway on Monday stated they
believed they had the coronavirus outbreak "under control". Eighty-three people have died after testing positive for the coronavirus in Norway. Asked at the press conference why Norway's death toll is so much lower than Sweden's, Tegnell responded:
"There are two reasons. Their infection has spread above all among much younger people than in Sweden. The other reason, for reasons we don't really know, is that the infection has spread much less in elderly care homes in Norway than in Sweden."
Tegnell said yesterday that the Public Health Agency was looking into why the coronavirus has spread to more elderly care homes in Sweden than in the other Nordic countries.
The coronavirus outbreak appears to be hitting residents in two of Stockholm's most vulnerable suburbs the hardest, with Rinkeby-Kista and Spånga-Tensta overrepresented according to health authorities.
Finland is tightening its border with Sweden and Norway to curb the spread of the coronavirus, allowing only essential commuter traffic, with almost all passengers arriving in Finland ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days, reports
YLE. Finnish healthcare workers who live in Finland and work in Sweden are not affected by the new measures, and freight traffic between the countries will also continue to operate as normal.
The new rules apply until May 13th.
Read more about them here (in English).
