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COVID-19

Sweden reports first case of infectious British Covid variant

Sweden has detected its first case of the new more infectious variant of coronavirus recently identified in the UK, the country's Public Health Agency announced at a press conference on Saturday.

Published: 26 December 2020 14:23 CET
Sweden reports first case of infectious British Covid variant
Sara Byfors from the Pubic Health Agency said that the person had isolated themselves since their arrival in Sweden. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT
The person who tested positive had recently travelled to Sweden from the UK to Sörmland region, and had kept themselves isolated since their arrival, in accordance with Swedish guidelines, Signe Mäkitalo, the region's infectious diseases doctor, told the TT newswire. 
 
“This is a person who had travelled to Sweden to celebrate Christmas,” Mäkitalo said, adding that the risk of the person infecting others was extremely low. 
 
At a press conference held by the Public Health Agency, its division chief Sara Byfors reiterated that everyone who has recently travelled from the UK should get tested, even if they have no symptoms. 
 
 
“We are collecting tests now from everyone who has travelled from Great Britain since October,” she said.
 
“On Monday, we issued a recommendation that everyone who had travelled from the UK should get tested so that we can carry out contact tracing to enable us to stop this variant of the virus from spreading in Sweden. Even those who have no symptoms should get tested.” 
 
The agency is calling for everyone who has been in the UK recently to isolate themselves in the same way as the person who tested positive in Sörmland. 

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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