Sweden Remains Far From Herd Immunity Despite Softer Lockdown

(Bloomberg) -- Only a fraction of Sweden’s population has developed Covid-19 antibodies despite a significant number of infections across the country.

Antibodies were found in 6.1% of the samples collected nationwide in the week ending May 24, according to a survey presented by the Public Health Agency on Thursday.

The number confirms earlier studies that suggested Sweden is far from reaching the level of immunity that could bring the spread of the virus to a halt.

“The spread is probably somewhat lower than we have thought,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said at a press conference in Stockholm. “In different parts of the population you have very different levels of immunity at this stage.”

Sweden’s approach to tackling Covid-19 has been controversial, as the country chose to keep restaurants and schools open while advising its citizens to observe social distancing rules. Contagion rates in Sweden are much higher than anywhere else in the Nordic region, and its Covid-19 mortality rate of 49.50 per 100,000 is among the worst in the world.

A separate analysis of 50,000 tests by Werlabs AB, a private company, showed that about 14% of the people had antibodies in the Stockholm region, the country’s worst affected area.

With Sweden’s immunity data increasingly under the spotlight, Tegnell cautioned against relying too much on a single survey given the wide range of results from various other studies.

“We need to collect data from a lot of different sources,” Tegnell said. “This is important to understand what kind of preparedness we need to have, especially after the summer. The level of immunity in the population I think will to a large extent determine what patterns we will see in the fall.”

The epidemiologist also repeated his rebuke of the assertions made by critics, including U.S. President Donald Trump, that Sweden’s approach is based on an attempt at reaching herd immunity.

“The strategy has never been to achieve a certain level of immunity,” Tegnell said. “It has always been to keep the spread at a level that is so low that it doesn’t affect society or the health-care system in a catastrophic way.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.