Swedish prime minister isolates as country sees virus cases surge

SWEDEN’S leader has gone into protective self-isolation even after a person close to him tested negative for Covid-19, as Sweden experiences an autumn surge of coronavirus cases.

The country’s prime minister, Stefan Lofven, broke the news on Facebook yesterday, the same day as the Scandinavian country appeared likely to pass 6,000 overall coronavirus deaths.

He wrote that “developments are going in the wrong direction fast. More are infected. More die. This is a serious situation”.

Earlier this year, when other European nations locked down, Sweden drew worldwide attention by keeping schools, gyms and restaurants open and not requiring people to wear masks.

Such was the popularity of the strategy pioneered by Anders Tegnell, 63, state epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Sweden and the architect of its Covid-19 response, that some in Stockholm went so far as to have his face tattooed on to their bodies.

But now that daily infections are on the rise, Swedes may not have had much practice in making sacrifices for the national good, having tried to negotiate the pandemic without locking down.

Meanwhile in Germany, the country recorded nearly 20,000 new coronavirus cases in one day, its highest level yet.

The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, yesterday said 19,990 infections had been confirmed in the previous 24 hours.

That tops the earlier record of 19,059 set on Saturday.

It brought the total case tally in Germany, a nation of 83 million people, since the pandemic began to 597,583.

Another 118 deaths raised the total to 10,930.

Like other European countries, Germany has seen a sharp rise in infections in recent weeks.

A four-week partial shutdown took effect on Monday, with bars, restaurants, leisure and sports facilities being closed and new contact restrictions imposed. Shops and schools remain open.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Wednesday that Germany has 237 new cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days, some seven times lower than in Belgium.

And in Greece, the prime minister yesterday announced a nationwide three-week lockdown starting on Saturday, saying that the increase in coronavirus infections must be stopped before the country’s health care system comes under “unbearable” pressure.

The main difference between this lockdown and the one Greece imposed in the spring is that kindergartens and primary schools will remain open.

Secondary schools will operate by remote learning.

The lockdown will end on November 30.

Residents will only be able to leave their homes for specific reasons such as work, medical appointments or exercise, and after informing authorities by text message.

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he “chose once again to take drastic measures sooner rather than later” after seeing an “aggressive increase in cases” over the last five days.

On Wednesday, Greece announced a record 18 daily deaths and 2,646 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to just under 47,000 and the deaths to 673.

Elsewhere, in Serbia, the 90-year-old patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church was admitted to hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, days after leading prayers at a large public funeral for the head of the church in Montenegro, who died after contracting the virus.

The Serbian Orthodox Church said that Patriarch Irinej was taken to hospital but had no Covid-19 symptoms and was in “excellent general condition”.

Many inside the Montenegrin church did not wear protective face masks or keep their distance from one other, in violation of coronavirus-fighting restrictions. Many kissed the bishop’s body in an open coffin.

Developments are going in the wrong direction fast