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The new Swedens? European countries shunning winter restrictions

switzerland - getty
switzerland - getty

Throughout the pandemic, Sweden has stood firm as the only country in Europe not to undergo a national lockdown, attracting admiration and dismay from other nations in equal measure.

Since entering the second wave, however, a handful of others appear to have taken a leaf out of its book and opted not to close down society at-large, regardless of rising Covid-19 infection rates.

Let’s examine their strategies.

Switzerland

Switzerland has gone its own way in a number of ways in regards to the pandemic; most recently refusing to enter a second national lockdown. It did implement one in spring, but was also one of the first countries in Europe to lift it.

Switzerland’s strategy was to intervene early with generous support for the economy in hopes of cushioning the blow that was to come. Alongside Germany, it was one of the first countries to introduce a short-time working scheme to protect jobs, with 30 per cent of Swiss workers having their wages propped up by the state. Additionally, the landlocked country’s pledge to fully underwrite bank loans to smaller firms provided crucial funding and was eventually copied by UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Then, in April, along with Austria, Switzerland was the first to reopen bars and restaurants and get society back to a state of near-normalcy. While it got away relatively unscathered in the spring and summer, the second wave hit hard in autumn. Switzerland has, of late, experienced a substantial spike in Covid-19 infections. In the seven days leading up to November 20, its Federal Office of Public Health reported 615 deaths, making it the most deadly week of the pandemic.

Coronavirus Switzerland Spotlight Chart - cases default
Coronavirus Switzerland Spotlight Chart - cases default

Still, the government is refusing to shut down. Finance minister Ueli Maurer has warned a second lockdown would be “disastrous”, and accused the Covid-19 taskforce of “short-sightedness and moralising”, branding its scientists as “know-it-alls”.

“We have to live, we have to be able to earn money, to be able to shop,” he said last week. Instead, officials are urging “self-responsibility” and that people simply follow the existing rules.

Currently, masks are compulsory outdoors and in public indoor spaces, hospitality venues must close at 11pm, a maximum of 10 people can gather indoors, and no more than four people can share a table in a restaurant unless they live together.

Writing from Davos, The Telegraph’s Alexandra Williams describes: “Apart from the ubiquitous sight of masks - available crystal-encrusted in this luxury Swiss ski resort – there are almost no signs of a global pandemic.”

Austria

Switzerland’s Alpine neighbour has taken a very similar approach, instigating the earliest, but shortest, lockdown in Europe. This is despite the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl being a high-profile Covid hotspot earlier this year, with thousands of tourists catching the virus and spreading it across Europe.

Austria is under national lockdown currently, and will be until December 7, but the restrictions are light in comparison to the majority of other countries. Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober has advised citizens to “avoid any contact which is not required”.

“The pandemic is not a natural disaster, not an earthquake," he stated this week. "It is in our hands that we as a community do something about it.”

Most recently, Austria has fought pressure from nations including Italy, France and Germany to issue a blanket closure of ski resorts across Europe. Instead, it plans to reopen the slopes next month.

“If the EU does in fact force skiing areas to stay closed, that will mean costs of up to €2 billion (£1.8bn). If that is what the EU really wants, it will also have to pay for it,” said Austria’s finance minister, Gernot Blumel, on Wednesday.

Visiting Vienna earlier this month, Alexander Fiske-Harrison wrote of “a completely different atmosphere to the UK” in regards to regulations. He describes: “No one wore masks in the streets, but everyone slipped them on as they stepped indoors: no fuss, no hysteria, no virtue-signalling.”

In terms of cases, a total of 3,145 were reported on Monday; the lowest number of daily infections in almost a month, according to Der Standard. To date, Austria has reported 2,886 Covid-19 fatalities. Taking into account its population, this corresponds to 320 deaths per million citizens. By comparison, the UK’s rate is thus far 838 per million.

Belarus

With political instability raging in Belarus, it is perhaps unsurprising that the pandemic has taken a back seat. Which is not to say that President Alexander Lukashenko has remained quiet on the topic.

The controversial leader, who caught the virus himself but was asymptomatic, went as far as to prescribe his people ‘vodka’ and ‘saunas’ as a means of dealing with Covid-19. Rather than cancel sporting events over the summer, he declared football to be ‘the best anti-virus remedy’ and stated: "It's better to die standing on your feet than to live on your knees."

To date, Belarus has reported more than 130,00 cases and has a relatively low death count of 120 per million citizens.

belarus - getty
belarus - getty

Writing this week in Minsk for Telegraph Travel, Daniel Hardaker describes: “Nightclubs, bars, restaurants, cafes are all full. Museums, galleries, churches and theatres are open, with no distancing requirements, Perspex barriers or relentless anti-bacterial spraying. There is no suggestion, either, of any interruption to the banja steam baths, a social ritual attended as a group, naked, temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Celsius and punctuated by beer breaks and rolls in the snow.”

And, unlike in every other country with a light-touch approach to the pandemic, Sweden included, there doesn’t appear to be much debate on the matter even between political parties.

“It has been a rare point of mutual understanding, if not often explicitly stated, between the authorities and much of the opposition, who are still engaged in ongoing protests and weekly stand-offs over the disputed results of August's presidential election,” writes Hardaker.

He notes: “Mask wearing has increased over the past few months, although not drastically. This is in the spirit of, as they see it, doing what they can without compromising normality, or risking an increase in death from other causes.”

Iceland

Many have pointed to the fact that Sweden’s unique stance on the pandemic has much to do with its parliamentary set-up; which has made a national lockdown constitutionally impossible and put a great deal of control in the hands of scientists rather than the central government.

Iceland’s situation is similar. Katrín Jakobsdottir, Iceland's prime minister, told The Telegraph that this science-first approach allows her to leave the virus policy "out of the battlefield of politics". Indeed, Iceland's chief scientist Thorolfur Gudnason holds an unusually senior position within the government’s crisis response team.

“It says in the law that the chief epidemiologist can do a lot of things. He can even close the country without asking permission from the minister,” Mr Gudnason said earlier this month.

So far, he is yet to use those powers. Iceland has never had to fully lockdown, and  Mr Gudnason puts this down to the country’s aggressive test and trace strategy, allowing clusters to be identified rapidly and suppressed, leaving the rest of the country to function relatively as normal.

Iceland Spotlight Chart - cases default
Iceland Spotlight Chart - cases default

By last count Iceland had carried out 190,672 tests, screening the equivalent of 53 per cent of the population. A further 169,274 tests have been carried out on travellers at its borders, who are tested once on arrival and again 5-6 days later.

Restrictions do exist, but they pale in comparison to the UK’s. In October, as Britain prepared to enter another national lockdown, Iceland’s response was to limit gatherings to groups of less than 20 and close bars, gyms and other high-risk settings. Currently, there are no restrictions on travel within the country.

"Iceland has a history of socially liberal culture," Jakobsdottir has stated. "That means acceptance of differences and minorities, but in this case, it means to trust, not to force. We have no tradition of militarism or an army. We ask for cooperation, rather than force it."

A novel approach indeed.