Sweden's CoronaVirus (Covid-19) Response

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SWEDEN CASUALTY

Neighbouring Norway's graphs are starkly different, however although Norway is slightly more urbanised (84% vs 80%), it has a lower urban density in Oslo (1400/km2 city, 3300/km2 urban) compared with Stockholm (4800/km2, 3600/km2 urban).

Belgium is omitted for technical reasons.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was slow to act. Unusual for a left-wing leader, because most of the casual responses to the CoronaVirus have been by Conservative leaders.

Regardless, the public support him overwhelmingly, in what Washington Post calls "blind patriotism". However W.H.O. gives cautious respect to Sweden for their unique response.

Even if the government wanted to introduce tough lockdown measures the constitution prevents them from doing so. The following indicates that there wasn't much interest in strict measures anyhow...

			Cases	Dead
Wed	March	11th	500	1	Sick leave improved
Wed	March	12th	687	1	500 max crowd limit
Mon	March	16th	1,121	7	Work from home encouraged (not enforced)
Wed	March	18th	1,301	10	Schools/Uni closed (age 16+)
"	"	"	"	"	Cinema chain closed (the largest one)
Thu	March	19th	1,439	11	Non-EU travellers banned from flying in
Wed	March	25th	2,526	62	No bar service, tables only.
Fri	March	26th	2,840	77	Ski after-parties banned
Sun	March	29th	3,700	110	50 max crowd limit.
Mon	March	30th	4,028	146	Regional rail reduced capacity, refunds offered
Wed	April	1st	4,947	239	Ski resorts closed & football & elderly asked to stay home
"	"	"	"	"	Nursing homes ban visits
Fri	April	3rd	6,131	358	International travel discouraged (not banned)
Sun	April	5th	6,224	401	Planned rule by decree abandoned.
Mon	April	6th	7,206	477	Thousands will die - warns PM
Tue	April	7th	7,693	591	Scientists pleading for evidence based policy.
"	"	"	"	"	Greater powers for govt in bill starting from 18th.
"	"	"	"	"	Subsidised temporary layoffs for employers
Sun	April	26th	18,640	2,194	Crackdown on venues re social distancing.
Tue	April	28th	19,621	2,355	ICU capacity reached in some (unknown) regions.
Mon	May	4th	22,317	2,679	10% of Stockholm has antibodies .
Tue	May	19th	30,799/td>	3,743	Economy failing just like its neighbours.

Influential state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell suggests the higher infection rate in aged care homes in Sweden is the main reason why it has had more deaths than its neighbours however this is an invalid deflection if you compare with Norway.

To be fair to him let me point out that, contrary to popular global belief, he does not believe Sweden will reach herd immunity levels.

As you can see on the right, Sweden's infections are far from reaching a plateau.
For the most accurate graphs you need to look at the official Swedish data not Worldometers or OurWorldInData which don't report daily cases as they happen. However even the official system for reporting numbers means there is a lag in reporting accurate numbers for the last few days (especially weekends).