Change of plan? Here’s what Sweden will do if there’s a ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus

Sweden attracted international attention for not implementing a strict lockdown when the coronavirus first emerged earlier this year, now the country’s chief epidemiologist says that if there’s a “second wave” of infections, he will focus more efforts on containing the spread of the virus.

Asked if Sweden was better prepared now for a potential second wave of coronavirus infections, which some experts fear could happen later in the year, Sweden’s Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell was certain it was.

“I definitely think so. We are better prepared in many ways, health care is better prepared. We’d be up and running a bit more with contact tracing and we also have the immunity in the population which will make things a lot easier in a lot of ways,” he told CNBC Tuesday.

While a vaccine for the coronavirus is still being developed, scientists are looking at whether exposure to and recovery from Covid-19 leads to long-term immunity; the jury is still out while that is being researched.

Having a comprehensive contact-tracing system and maintaining recently-improved standards in elderly care homes were now priorities, Tegnell said, drawing on lessons learned from Sweden’s experience of the virus over the past few months.

Change of plan? Here’s what Sweden will do if there’s a ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus, CNBC, Jun 17