Sweden has again broken ranks with its neighbours to employ its own tactics in defeating Covid.
Its health agency said vaccinated Swedes no longer need to get tested even if they have symptoms of the disease.
The move has led to some of Sweden's regions no longer providing free testing for all, and resulted in a sharp decline in Covid-19 testing this month.
It comes just as much of Europe contends with surging infection rates.
Sweden's handling of the pandemic has stood out – the country shunned lockdowns throughout the health crisis and instead relied on voluntary measures based on social distancing and good hygiene.
A commission reviewing the country’s light-touch approach to dealing with Covid-19 was highly critical, saying authorities "did too little, too late" to curb Covid-19 infections.
The country's number of deaths per capita since the start of the pandemic is several times higher than those among its Nordic neighbours but also lower than in most European countries that opted for strict lockdowns. So far, more than 15,00 people have died and there have been more than one million cases.
Covid-19 testing fell by 35 per cent last week compared with a month earlier. That places Sweden in the bottom of the European Union along with countries like Germany, Spain, Poland and Finland, according to Our World in Data.
The health agency says the resources for testing could be better used elsewhere and that there is no need to test those who are fully vaccinated because they have a low risk of getting sick and are less likely to spread the disease.
However, the timing of the decision, just as Europe is heading into winter, has baffled some scientists. The stance by the health agency has rekindled criticism the country has turned its back on the scientific consensus about the virus spread and the ability to break disease chains.
"The number of cases is low in Sweden, but considering how the outside world looks like, with lots of cases in Europe, I think you should have waited with this decision," said Anders Sonnerborg, professor in clinical virology and infectious diseases at Karolinska Institutet.
"I have a hard time seeing that waiting a few months would be a major intervention in people's lives," he said.
Health Agency official Sara Byfors on Thursday defended the decision saying testing would still be at high enough levels to catch trends and that testing had never caught all cases.
"If we see that the spread of infection increases and that it becomes a problem then we are prepared to reverse our decision," she said.
The number of hospital admissions and patients treated at intensive care units have started to creep up in recent weeks but are still the lowest in the European Union per capita, according to Our World in Data.
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, who bore the brunt of criticism because he was behind the country’s unique approach, is unapologetic. “Now, we’re two years into this and Sweden doesn’t really stand out,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday. “We’re not the best, but we’re definitely not the worst. That’s what I hear now: how much good did all these draconian [measures] do for anybody?”
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Golden Ball - best Emirati player: Khalfan Mubarak (Al Jazira)
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Golden Glove - best goalkeeper: Adel Al Hosani (Sharjah)
Best Coach - the leader: Abdulaziz Al Anbari (Sharjah)
Fans' Player of the Year: Driss Fetouhi (Dibba)
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Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
