Sweden's public health authority on Tuesday reported a further 45 deaths from coronavirus, bringing the total death toll in the country, which controversially chose not to impose a lockdown, to 3,743.
According to the latest update, 422 more people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases to 30,799.
Death toll figures in Sweden generally fall over the weekend, due to a lack of reporting, then increase again during the week as health authorities catch up. Today's figure was the lowest reported on a Tuesday for six weeks, suggesting the outbreak in the country is now in abeyance despite a relative lack of measures to curb the spread of the virus.
People take part in a spin class on the pavement in Upplands Väsby, Sweden, held outdoors to enable social distancing. Photograph: IBL/REX/ShutterstockBasing its approach on a so-called "principle of responsibility", Sweden has kept schools open (indeed compulsory) for children under the age of 16, along with cafes, bars, restaurants and businesses, and urged people to respect social distancing guidelines.
Statistics released on Monday showed that Sweden had its deadliest month in almost three decades in April, with a total of 10,458 deaths recorded in the country of 10.3 million people.
"We have to go back to December 1993 to find more dead during a single month," Tomas Johansson, population statistician at Statistics Sweden, said in a statement.
In total, 97,008 deaths were recorded in Sweden during the whole of 1993, which in turn was the deadliest year since 1918, when the Spanish flu pandemic ravaged the country. Johansson told AFP there was no official breakdown explaining the high death toll in December 1993 but said there was a flu epidemic at the time.
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