Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that authorities in Sweden are currently investigating 150 cases of a recurrence of coronavirus, although, the paper reports, “there are many indications that even those who fall ill a second time have some protection”.
Patients who contract the virus a second time may be less contagious and suffer a less severe illness, according to Sweden’s public health agency.
New infections and hospital admissions have surged in Sweden as the country battles a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic that officials had hoped its light-touch, anti-lockdown approach would mitigate.
“We consider the situation extremely serious,” the director of health and medical care services for Stockholm, Björn Eriksson, told the state broadcaster SVT this week. “We can expect noticeably more people needing hospital care over the coming weeks.”
Swedish hospitals were treating 1,004 patients for Covid-19, SVT said, an increase of 60% over the previous week’s 627. Data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control suggests the rise in recent weeks may be Europe’s fastest.
Read more via The Guardian/SVT/ Dagens Nyheter
