
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and various news media reports, a Swedish health officials claimed that infection rates in Stockholm are slowing and that parts of the country could achieve “herd immunity” in the next several weeks. According to Dr. Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s national epidemiologist, epidemiological models indicated that data are showing decreased transmission in some cities, including Stockholm, and that there could be enough infected individuals in the city to make a substantial impact by May. He acknowledged that the models could be incorrect. The announcement comes amid reports of increased deaths in Sweden, which Dr. Tegnell attributed to a failure to protect high-risk populations rather than elevated levels of community transmission. Sweden has taken a rather unorthodox approach to responding to COVID-19, compared to other countries, resisting efforts to implement more aggressive social distancing measures. Swedish officials have emphasized that they are not attempting to develop herd immunity, but rather, they are not implementing formal “lockdown” like other countries. Despite the less aggressive distancing measures, Sweden has reported an increase in unemployment to 8%.