Increased infection rates in Sweden not due to winter sports breaks: Public Health Agency

Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has been asked by locals that the “sportlov” holiday is affecting the current high levels of infection, and the current understanding is that the holiday is “no effect at all” based on the infection. “. Prices for mountain resorts and their surroundings.

An analysis conducted in Skåne, southern Sweden, even suggested that the spread of the infection was higher in those who stayed home on a week’s vacation than in those who spent in the mountains.

“There was some data comparing the number of infected people returning from ski vacations from southern Sweden and the reported number of infections among those who stayed in Skåne. Among those who stayed in Skåne, they left. It is overrated compared to people. ”

“Quite a surge”

Tegnell said at a news conference that the number of new cases per day has increased by about 18% in the last two weeks.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a pretty significant increase of about 18% in the last two weeks,” he said. “We are still in the stage of widespread infection. Maintaining this level for a long time is not sustainable. Sweden absolutely needs to significantly reduce the infection rate.”

Tegnell was asked why his agency did not introduce further restrictions, as other countries do, and said infection rates were rising in those countries as well.

“This is a pattern found in many countries, and even in countries with fairly comprehensive restrictions, it is growing fairly rapidly,” he said.

Following the increase in the number of cases, he said, the number of hospitalizations in the intensive care unit increased.

The bright spot in the update was that the daily death toll continued to decline weekly, even though the rate of decline slowed down.

“As mentioned earlier, this is very likely the result of vaccination work, which means that people in elderly care facilities are now well protected,” Tegnell said. “Now, almost everyone in a long-term care facility is protected.”

Sweden is currently vaccinated 1,385,975 times, with 971,736 people receiving one dose and 414,239 receiving both. About 11.9 percent of people over the age of 18 are currently taking at least one dose.

But Tegnell said the country is still “much ahead” before vaccination affects the spread of the virus. This is due to the fact that previously vaccinated older people are not primarily an important driver of infection and that viruses, especially recently reported variants, are highly contagious.

Is there an AstraZeneca vaccine for women under the age of 55?

Tegnell has decided that the Public Health Department will withhold the AstraZeneca vaccine from certain subsections of the population, based on the fact that almost all people affected by life-threatening blood clots are women under the age of 55. I asked the locals if there was a possibility of doing so. It was possible to be seen.

“We are looking at different scenarios, and that is definitely one of the possible responses,” Tegnell said.

The agency aims to “understand which groups are affected and which are not, and to see which groups can be vaccinated,” he said. Stated.

“We are just around the corner,” he said of the decision to resume vaccination with AstraZeneca’s jabs. “We plan to provide reports and suggestions on how to continue vaccination in two days.”

He said he hopes that the decision to stop using AstraZeneca’s jabs for more than a week will not undermine public confidence.

“We hope that the delays we have while scrutinizing the evidence will regain confidence in vaccines by creating an understanding of where and where the risks are. ”