Life is getting harder and harder every day for all of us. It’s difficult to “take in” this surreal situation. You have a feeling of being part of a science fiction movie. You hear news and specialists analyzing the Covid19 every day, from morning until evening and it’s so difficult to know who is right or who is wrong.
Sweden seems to be a country that stands out, it has received attention for its relatively mild and rational oriented infection protection.
The Corona virus has paralyzed most part of the world. Boarders are closed, class rooms empty and almost everywhere streets are empty. In Italy and France, the military controls that the inhabitants stay home.
In Denmark all public working persons are sent home and in Germany it’s forbidden that more than 2 persons meet in public.
Sweden handles it differently to all other countries. The borders are not closed. Historically, it has shown totally meaningless to close down a country, the State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has said.
In the southern part of Sweden, the security experts have met and discussed what eventually would happen if all schools close, people are sent home from work, people stop travelling over the regional boarders and the result, after long research is; that closing the schools might reduce the infected with not more than 3 %. The kids can be infected everywhere. They mean that to close school would not be efficient.
To let people work from home might save a few percentages of the inhabitants. The advantage might be that we can postpone the risk curve and give the hospitals more time to plan and get equipped.
Now we are getting close to the Easter holiday and many are worried when people will travel on vacation within the country. The analysts are trying to find out what the result could be.
The advice you’ll get is “stay at home” if you have a symptom and if you think you are infected, then stay in quarantine. Try to avoid touching other people or things, been touched by others.
Try to keep a distance of about 2 meters, avoid visiting people over 70 (the biggest population group).
Don’t sneeze when you are standing next to someone and clean your hands carefully and as often as possible. Don’t touch your face.Seem to be logical, but not always easy to follow.
Flu virus in Sweden.
Last year “the Swine flu” (Svin influensan) dominated in Sweden until March, then the “Hong Kong” flu came and took over. Due to Folkhälsomyndigheten (The Public Health Agency of Sweden) over a 100 of people die from these viruses yearly between Christmas and Easter. Year 2017-2018, 1012 persons over 65 years died.
The Public health Agency says; “To die is a part of life”, might be seen as a bit too cynical, but true. At average 246 persons die every day in Sweden, mostly in a combination of diseases and infections.
The new Corona virus SARS-Co V-2 has a mortality rate that is similar to the common flues and the same category persons will be hit.
The virus brings not only a high mortality, but also a huge financial crises.
What we should take in consideration are all the suicides we might face in the next time and depressions. It’s therefore important, during this time, to try to stay positive and do the best out of the situation. One uses to say “After rain, comes sunshine”.
Now we are soon going to celebrate Easter and Songkran and this year we have a chance to make it extra colorful and cozy. Paint your eggs, decorate with colorful roosters, chickens and Easter bunnies, make “Påskris” (normally we make it with birch branches) but now we have to use our fantasy, as we can’t find birches here and we probably can’t go to a flower shop to find a substitute.
What we can do is to relax, doing things we normally don’t have time for and we do have the modern Technic that helps us to be together, if only virtual. For families, this could be the time to sit together and talk to each other, play games and read loud. Take the opportunity to just be together.
HAPPY EASTER & HAPPY SONGKRAN!
