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Sweden was an early adopter of a relaxed approach to COVID-19, with talk of herd immunity and ensuring that the economy didn’t suffer unduly.

Slowly but surely, the country has been adjusting its approach, but now it’s come to a head amidst a surge in hospitalisations.

According to Reuters, Monday saw an all-time high for patients being treated in hospital for COVID-19,  with a total of 2 389 patients, including those in intensive care, receiving treatment.

Now the country is facing a shortage of healthcare workers, with resignations in the sector seeing a rapid increase, too.

Below via Fortune:

Sineva Ribeiro, the chairwoman of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, says the situation is “terrible.”

…The development shows that even countries with universal health-care systems are now struggling to keep up with the Covid crisis. This week, Stockholm’s intensive care capacity hit 99%, sending the city into a panic and prompting calls for outside help.

But even if more ICU beds are provided, the bigger concern now is whether Sweden has enough health-care workers with the skills needed to look after the country’s sickest patients.

In 13 of Sweden’s 21 regions, resignations are up from the previous year, with Stockholm County Mayor Irene Svenonius calling the situation “extremely tense”.

In the capital alone, around 3 600 health personnel have quit since the start of the pandemic

There is talk that the military may be called upon to help, and staff from a children’s hospital have now been redeployed to help COVID-19 patients, meaning children who were due to have non-emergency operations will have to wait.

Neighbours Norway and Finland have offered assistance, although Sweden has yet to officially ask for outside help.

Here’s the Financial Times:

Sweden has reported 1,400 Covid deaths in the past month compared with about 100 in Norway and 80 in Finland, each of which have half its population.

Sweden reports deaths differently to the rest of Europe, which makes knowing their exact level difficult, but analysts at Nordea, the Nordic lender, believe they could be higher than their peak in April.

During South Africa’s more extreme period of the national lockdown, many pointed to Sweden as proof that we were unnecessarily destroying our economy.

First, via the Daily Maverick, some stats on deaths per capita in the Scandinavian region:

The numbers are in, and the Swedish experiment is over. Like the rest of Europe, the northern winter in Sweden will be filled with bans on large gatherings, curbs on alcohol sales and school closures.

The really thumping number is the number of deaths per capita, and here Sweden is among the very worst in the world. The problem was not so much the first wave, but the second surge. Sweden’s total coronavirus death count is now over 7,000, while its Scandanavian neighbours, Denmark, Finland and Norway, have recorded since the start of the pandemic 878, 415 and 354 deaths, respectively.

Consider that Sweden has a population around the 10 million mark, meaning per capita, their death rate is almost double South Africa’s.

A fairer comparison might be with Finland and Norway – that graph above tells its own story.

Now for the real kick in the teeth:

Sweden’s economy didn’t deliver the economic benefits that might have made up somewhat, in a perverse way, for the higher mortality rate. Sweden’s GDP dropped 8.5% in the first half, and unemployment will rise to 10%. This is almost exactly the same level of decline as its Nordic neighbours.

Why did Sweden not reap benefits from keeping its economy going? Mainly because other European governments paired lockdown with business support, which Sweden didn’t think it would have to do since the country wasn’t being locked down. Downturns everywhere else washed over the border, just like the virus itself.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach that will work for every country in the world – New Zealand, for example, has successfully curbed the spread of COVID-19, but they’re an isolated island nation.

When healthcare professionals in Sweden talk of a “terrible” situation, with panic in major cities, though, it appears that the country has made some major missteps of its own, and is now paying the price.

[sources:reuters&fortune&ft&dailymaverick]