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Coronavirus

04th May 2020

Why does Sweden have so many COVID-19 deaths?

Oli Dugmore

sweden covid-19

‘The Swedish model’ has been much talked about during the pandemic

Hans Bergström is a Swedish-American journalist, the former editor of Sweden’s leading daily newspaper, and a professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg.

He spoke to JOE about Sweden’s unique approach to coronavirus, which was initially lauded by many as an example in how to avoid lockdown measures, but has actually resulted in a high number of deaths, proportional to the country’s geographical neighbours.

Despite having low population density, the country has seven times more deaths per capita than Norway and Finland, and three times more than Denmark. Why is that the case?