Sweden’s parliamentary committee “crosses” the government: “You failed to manage the pandemic”

Its center-left minority government Sweden failed in several aspects of its pandemic management COVID-19, said today the parliamentary institutions committee.

The government has been slow to implement a test and tracking system, has failed to protect the elderly and there has been no clear separation of responsibilities between national and local authorities, the commission said. He did not comment on Sweden’s controversial strategy of not imposing restrictive measures such as lockdown.

“It’s clear that Sweden was not well prepared before (the pandemic) and we can learn from many of the underlying failures that have been identified,” said Hans Ekstrom, a Social Democrat MP and deputy chairman of the commission.

Sweden has chosen not to impose a lockdown in the fight against the pandemic, relying mainly on voluntary measures. The death toll is higher than that recorded in the other Nordic countries, but lower than in other European countries that chose the Lockdowns.

The commission said the government should act faster to set up a framework for testing and tracking, faster to draft a law that would give it broader powers to deal with the crisis, and faster to isolate caregivers for elderly people.

“The government’s response has been inadequate,” said Karin Enstrom, chairwoman of the opposition Moderate Party. “The elderly were particularly vulnerable… and… the government should have acted more vigorously.”

The Social Democrat-led government has already admitted that it did not do enough to protect elderly caregivers.

By May 26, just over one million Swedes had been confirmed infected with COVID-19 and about 14,500 had died.