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Today in Sweden: A round-up of the latest news on Wednesday

Find out what's going on in Sweden today with The Local's short round-up of the news in less than five minutes.

Today in Sweden: A round-up of the latest news on Wednesday
Stockholm City Hall, which will be transformed into a venue for Covid-19 vaccinations. Photo: Erik Simander/TT

Covid-19 vaccinations to be carried out in Stockholm City Hall

The Blue Room (Blå hallen) in Stockholm's City Hall will be turned into a temporary vaccination hub for people working in elderly care, said mayor Anna König Jerlmyr. The venue is most famous for hosting Sweden's Nobel Prize banquet every year.

Around ten sports halls will also be used as vaccination venues in Stockholm.

Swedish vocabulary: elderly care – äldreomsorg


What Stockholm City Hall looks like when it's hosting the Nobel Prize banquet. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Swedish lions and tigers test positive for Covid-19

Five lions and two tigers at Borås Zoo in western Sweden came down with Covid-19 in mid-January, which was discovered after they started coughing and had no appetite. A 17-year-old tiger with underlying health conditions had to be put down, reports SVT.

Several members of staff also tested positive for Covid-19, and everyone working with the tigers and lions was quarantined. The zoo told Borås Tidning that the staff are believed to have infected the animals, not the other way around. Similar cases have been reported in other parts of the world, but this is the first time it has happened in Sweden.

The animals' symptoms have improved, and the outbreak was believed to be under control on Tuesday

Swedish vocabulary: lions and tigers – lejon och tigrar


File photo of a lion at Borås Zoo. Photo: Borås Zoo

Almost 200,000 Covid-19 vaccinations have been given in Sweden

Just under 500 new cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 residents were reported over the past 14 days in Sweden, pushing the country below the threshold that would see it marked 'very high risk' under new EU plans.

The Covid-19 case notification rate had fallen from 616 the previous week, the Public Health Agency reported in Sweden's biweekly coronavirus briefing, and compares to just under 900 in the week before Christmas.

While the current rate of 479 cases per 100,000 residents would not see Sweden marked as a very high risk 'dark red zone' under the proposed EU-wide classification, it still shows a high level of spread of the virus.

In late October, before the second wave took hold in Sweden, this figure was below 150, roughly the same as the current case rate in Norway.

In total 192,700 vaccinations have been registered as carried out in Sweden.

Swedish vocabulary: dark red – mörkröd

Sweden extends travel warning for non-EU countries beyond Easter

Sweden's foreign ministry has extended its advice against non-essential travel to non-EU countries until April 15th – beyond both the winter sports school break and the Easter holidays.

The guidance relates to restrictions in place for travellers rather than being based on the spread of coronavirus infection in the countries.

It is not a legally binding ban, but has other implications that residents in Sweden may want to take into account before deciding to travel, for example that your Swedish travel insurance may not be valid if you disregard the advice.

Swedish vocabulary: advise against – avråda från

How space rock hunters found rare traces of a meteorite in Sweden

Swedish meteorite hunters have discovered fragments from the fireball meteor which lit up the night sky in November, the first from an observed meteorite found in Sweden since 1954.

Jörgen Langhof, a minerologist at Sweden's Museum of Natural History, found and analysed several of the fragments, after an anonymous hobby meteorite hunter tipped him off to the location.

“It's very interesting because fragments from iron meteorites are quite rare,” he told The Local. “They are very sensitive to weathering. If there's water and weak acids in the ground it will decompose in smaller particles and in time dissolve completely.”

Swedish vocabulary: space – rymd

Swedish playwright Lars Norén dies aged 76

One of Sweden's most well-known theatre writers, Lars Norén, has died aged 76 from complications owing to Covid-19, his publisher said.

“The importance of Lars Norén as an author and dramatist is almost impossible to convey at the moment in a couple of sentences, but he was one of the greats of our time,” Eva Bonnier, editor at his publishing house Albert Bonniers Förlag, said in a statement.

Famous both at home and abroad he was seen as following in the footsteps of renowned Swedish author August Strindberg (1849-1912) and film director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). He started with poetry in the 1960s before homing in on theatre in the late 1970s, as both a writer and director.

Swedish vocabulary: director – regissör

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TODAY IN SWEDEN

Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Right bloc strikes government deal, Sweden Democrat to lead Sweden in OSCE, Russia's Nord Stream 'bewilderment', and inflation nears 10 percent: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.

Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Moderate leader strikes government coalition deal

Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson has completed his deal with the Sweden Democrat, Christian Democrat and Liberal parties, and will announce it at 10am on Friday, state broadcaster SVT has reported.

According to a story published at close to 11pm on Thursday night, the four parties will hold a press conference at 10am where they will lay out the details on the new government’s plans to reform Sweden over the next four years.

The agreement contains both policy details and details of which parties will be part of the coalition and how they will work together.

After the press conference, at 11am, Kristersson will visit the parliament’s Speaker Andreas Norlén to inform him that the deal is complete, after which the Speaker will call a parliamentary vote on Kristersson as prime minister, probably for Monday.

Swedish vocab: en överenskommelse – an agreement 

Far-right politician appointed to lead Sweden in OSCE

One of the leading politicians in the far-right Sweden Democrats has been appointed to lead Sweden in the OSCE, a body that monitors elections and seeks to bolster security in Europe.

Björn Söder, one of the so-called ‘gang of four’ who transformed the Sweden Democrats, has been appointed chair of the Swedish delegation of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The OSCE was founded in Helsinki in 1975 as a forum for discussion between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc and gained its current name in 1995.

Söder has faced criticism for saying in 2018 that in his opinion members of Sweden’s Sami and Jewish minorities were not Swedish. “They are recognised as minorities because they are not Swedish,” he argued, stressing that ethnicity and citizenship were two different concepts.

Many had expected the Sweden Democrats to put Söder forward as deputy speaker of the parliament, a position he held between 2014 and 2018, but the party instead nominated his less controversial colleague Julia Kronlid.

Swedish vocab: valobservatör – election monitor

Russia aggrieved at Germany, Denmark and Sweden over Nord Stream probe

Russia’s foreign ministry said Thursday it had summoned envoys of Germany, Denmark and Sweden to express “bewilderment” over Moscow’s exclusion from an investigation into leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines.

Multiple leaks were discovered on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, further raising political tensions already sky high since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February. All four leaks were located near Danish island Bornholm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the leaks were an act of “international terrorism” that would benefit the United States, Poland and Ukraine.

Both Moscow and Washington have denied responsibility for the leaks, which were discovered in late September. Germany, Sweden and Denmark have formed a joint investigation unit to probe the apparent sabotage.

“The heads of the diplomatic missions of Germany, Denmark and Sweden in Moscow have been summoned to the Russian foreign ministry in recent days,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.

Swedish vocab: att kalla upp diplomater – so summon diplomats

More rate hikes on cards as Swedish inflation nears 10 percent

Inflation in Sweden hit a higher than expected 9.7 percent in September, making it likely that the country’s central bank will have to hike interest rates even more rapidly.

In a press release issued on Thursday morning, Statistics Sweden blamed “higher electricity prices and higher prices for groceries and alcohol-free drinks” for driving price increases over the month.

The rise was higher than market expectations of about 9.3 percent, judging by a survey carried out by Bloomberg, a financial news service.

The goods that saw the highest price increases were bread and other products made from grain, and coffee, the agency wrote. 

“This is high, well above the Riksbank’s target. That indicates we will see continued big [rate] hikes,” Annika Winsth, chief economist at Nordea, told the TT newswire. 

She said that it was likely now that the 50 point rate rise planned for November would be increased to 75 points. 

“Both households and companies need to be prepared for rates continuing to rise,” she said. 

Swedish vocab: att rusa – to soar (literally “rush”) 

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