Can someone tell us about life in Sweden atm?

[Bringringbring12]

Just reading very insightful (depressing) thread about life in Spain

Would be so interested if someone currently in Sweden could give an insight in to what’s life like and what you think about the country’s approach?

Many thanks

Good idea OP, it would be good to hear another side of the story.

I am aware of "conditions" in two parts of Germany but they have largely the same sort of rules as we do (Bavaria may be stricter).

I’m really interested.

Fingers crossed someone enlightens!

My parents are there. They say that even though people haven't been banned from meeting up with others most people are being sensible and are staying away from others as much as they can. Children are still going to.school . Restaurants have made more space between tables and put lots of tables outside.

Trouble with Sweden's death figures though is that they're classifying deaths differently so their figures appear lower. In UK every death where the person had CV19 is counted, even if they were at end of life with something else so that accounts for a significant number. In Sweden they're not counting the ones who had another life limiting condition where they were near the end.
That's how I understand it anyway, before people think the Sweden way is more successful.

@Mummymummums

I hope this thread isn’t derailed by which way is better.

It’s for information purposes I hope.

@Appleapplepear

Are restaurants reporting down turn in business or busy as ever?

I'm not sure about restaurants, but shops (all shops are still open) are less busy and some non-food shops are opening later and closing earlier.

People are generally happy to follow the advice of aithorities, which helps in situations like this. There is more space than here (some inner cities excepted) and people tend to work and go to school in their local towns. There tends to be more space between towns than here. All this helps keep the spread down.

Will be very interesting to see how Sweden develops as time goes on

My extended family are there - they have only recently started thinking about distancing but last week were still meeting up, and getting out and about. My aunts are over 70 and are taking more seriously now.

I'm interested too, im holding my hopes out for all countries to get this under control within the coming months. It's so surreal that this is happening :(

I’m not in Sweden atm and this is such a random thought, but bear with me...
People in Sweden are very quiet in public, and don’t speak to strangers. Even in shops the average interaction is often 2/3 words whereas other countries it’ll be 20. “Do you have...That’ll be...Tap here please...do you want a bag...thank you...thank you”, and that’s the bare minimum, it’s often much more. I lived there and didn’t pick up much Swedish at all, although I’m a linguist and can usually get ok conversationally after a short holiday. They’re also very respectful of personal space. The virus is passed through our breath, hence the 2 metre rule (there was a horrendous case of 45/60 choir members contracting cv after a 2hr choir practice). Maybe they’re not passing it on to each other for that reason. They’re not breathing on each other.

The approach, so far, works well here. It might change when the weather gets better. Most people seem to think it’s the most sensible idea, and do as we’re told so that we can keep our freedom for as long as possible.

People work from home, if they can. If we feel even a sniffle, we have to stay home from work - and get 80% salary from day one. Same if your children are sick, they get sent home from school and nurseries if they so much as sneeze twice..and parents get 80% of their salary. Shops and restaurants do suffer, but people support their local places by buying take aways etc.

Without a lockdown we have gotten used to this slowly, and I am beginning to think this is the key.. We can go and see friends and family if I want, but we don’t! I have only seen my parents (outdoors) a couple of times in months. But, noone knows if this is the right thing to do or not and it certainly is very scary. If we get a lockdown soon, we’ve had plenty of time to be prepared.

@Etinox spot on

My friends live there. One is working from home and the other works in a hospital. They are shopping infrequently and have stopped visiting family and friends. They still drive to their summer home.
They say they have complete confidence in their government so I guess we just have to watch and wait. Hopefully everything will be ok.

@GoodDogBellaBoo phew. I lived there 20 years ago for 6 months and wondered whether the culture had changed. I couldn’t get over how reserved everyone was. And it wasn’t because I looked foreign I had blonde toddlers and an emmaljunga buggy and had three conversations with strangers. One a German woman in the park, and two old people.

It helps that Swedes have a high degree of faith in evidence and science, and that social distancing is basically always the norm anyway..

@Etinox haha, I believe you. It is even worse during winter, I hardly even see my neighbours..! Summer is slightly better.

I live in rural Sweden and at the moment although things are not totally locked down people are generally distancing much more than Stockholm and have been for several weeks:

• Universities are closed and teaching/examining students online
• Gymnasiets (6th forms) are closed and some 13-16 high schools as well
• at the moment nurseries and primary schools are still open but traditionally many have a lot of outdoor activities
• people are generally socially distancing here - everywhere is very quiet: social events, groups, evening classes sport training etc are cancelled
• where I live restaurants are takeaway only
• there has been no real panic buying here - a few weeks ago there was a little panic buying of toilet paper, pasta and instant mash but not to the point of non-availability. Hand sanitizer has been hard to find but I saw that an internet pharmacy had 1 litre bottles last week
• back in February the army and civil defence put up field hospital tents to triage A&E patients
• hospitals and care homes in my county banned all visiting around 3-4 weeks ago:
• I know of a hospital that interviewed applicants for care assistant positions outdoors last week .. in only +3C
• testing has ramped up in the past couple of weeks - many county health authorties have geared up their own testing to get results quicker
• in rural areas many people don't live very close together and rarely see neighbours in winter - generally people seem to be out and about much less the roads, shops and strrets are quieter
• people don't seem obsessed about "going out for exercise" - I live next to a rural track into the forest and usually see horse riders, walkers, joggers and cyclists but have seen very few in the past few weeks

Goodness on basis of last post.... parts of Sweden are not far off UK.

Thank you, this is all very interesting

I live on the west coast.
My school is distance learning so I'm not getting out as much, so these are the observations of my unobservant husband.
Seems a bit quieter but not much. Restaurants still open, markets cafes etc. No panic buying, social distancing is as you can expect- variable.
Seems to have been a lot of people out today but it was the first nice weather we've had in months.

Looks like they’re tightening things up. Guardian article today
Singapore is also changing its response. It feels like no one really knows which is the best- not a criticism, just a realisation that we really are dealing with the unknown.