Why does the Swedish government recommend that the elderly population not be isolated?

The announcement came from the Swedish government on Thursday, October 22nd, with the explanation that Sweden registers the lowest number of infected people than in the spring and that isolation left its impact on the mental health of the elderly population.

The Public Health Agency has decided that the elderly, as well as those in other risk groups, will not undergo specific measures, they will submit to the same recommendations as the rest of the population”, said Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren, Reuters news agency.

Sweden currently has a total of about 110,000 Coronavirus infected and over 5,900 deaths. The number of infected people has steadily increased in recent weeks, but it is still noticeably lower than in other European countries.

In the Czech Republic, measures have been tightened to cope with the high rise in new cases. Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom are also the states that have marked great growth.

The total death toll from COVID-19 in Sweden is higher than in other Scandinavian countries, but still lower than the number registered by countries that have taken stricter measures like Spain or the United Kingdom.

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden has had a different approach from the rest of Europe by relying on voluntary measures to promote the physical distance and conscious behavior of its citizens but Sweden had isolated the homes of elders when the number of infected began to increase and when deaths in the elderly grew.

Sweden's strategy, based on personal responsibility, and not on restrictions and strict blockades, has been criticised after death in the spring, mainly at home of elders, but officials of the World Health Organisation (OBSH) have praised their model as “sustainable”.

The strategy is based on the promise that recommendations could last for years and that it would be a <x0 disaster” to open and close schools and restaurants every time, and this would do more damage to public services or businesses than closing them immediately and permanently.

During September, when the numbers began to rise again after a calm summer, Sweden, however, considered the return of the measures.

The average number of new infections is increasing,” said Anders Tegnell, chief Swedish director who invented the Swedish strategy, but added that “has not already affected healthcare. What exactly happens, we'll see. ”

In September, Anna Mia Exstrom, an epidemiologist at the Swedish Institute Karolinska, the country's largest medical academic research centre, spoke of Radio Free Europe on Sweden's non-defining approach.

Regarding the importance of people's lives, mainly of elderly people in the homes of elders, Ekstrom said: “We had very early deaths, in March and April, in countries where there was a spread (of the virus) and that mainly in specialized homes of elderly people because of inappropriate working conditions, which included lack of protective equipment, when we knew less about how to protect the elderly<1>

But when health institutions and policymakers realized that it was not good that infection entered the homes of elders and that so many people died in the first few weeks, things improved dramatically “.

Extrom explained why she believes Sweden's approach to fighting COVID-19 is more stable in the long-term plan compared to restrictive measures from other European countries:

“The strategy has always been more stable. The proposal of measures that are acceptable to the population in the long term. We never had complete closure, we had strict recommendations on working from house to house, learning in higher education develops in distance, social distance, and avoiding unnecessary contact with the elderly, the hygiene of the hands - measures of this kind that people have largely accepted”.

However, there has been controversy if elderly patients in need received all the help they needed when they needed it.

Tagnwell says that the high mortality rate in Sweden has nothing to do with Sweden's Coronavirus combat strategy, and that Sweden cannot be compared to Norway and Finland, because most of the deaths in Sweden are related to old people's homes and homes for serious illness and other weaknesses have been previously identified by” Newsweek.

He admits that they did not expect so much death and that the next “something went wrong, but that the strategy itself is not wrong”.

So far, Swedes over 70 years of age have been advised to avoid physical contact, not use public transportation, not to go to stores and other public places, measures that have reduced the number of infected people, but, in turn, have left significant negative consequences on the overall quality of the lives of many older people.

Sweden was relatively open when compared with other Scandinavian countries, its citizens, according to recommendations, worked from home or traveled by bicycles.

Older Swedes are now advised to follow measures implemented by the rest of the population by avoiding larger gatherings, staying at home in the early symptoms of the disease, and maintaining physical distance.

By BBCJohn Carlson, head of the Swedish Public Health Agency, said earlier recommendations had helped reduce the spread of infection among the most vulnerable of populations, but that the mental and physical consequences were evident because of the length of the pandemic.

“Rresic for individuals will continue. Some will get sick, but we have to find a balance,” said Carlson.

However, as Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren stressed, this does not mean going back to normal life: the daily life cannot be like before pandemic, but there are many ways to live and not just survive”