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

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 Tuesday
Stockholmers queuing to get vaccinated at the Fållan club, normally a live music venue. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

World’s largest Midsummer’s Eve party cancelled

Normally, nearly 30,000 people would gather in the town of Leksand in Dalarna, Sweden, in June to dance around the maypole and sing about little frogs – the world’s largest Midsummer’s Eve celebrations, one of Sweden’s most important holidays.

But it has now been cancelled for the second consecutive year due to the pandemic, reports regional newspaper Dalarnas Tidningar. Last year, it was the first time the traditional festivities got cancelled in several hundred years.

Swedish vocabulary: maypole – majstång

Rising number of Covid-19 patients in ICU in Sweden

Significantly fewer people are dying from Covid-19 in Sweden thanks to vaccinations, but the number of patients continues to rise in the country’s intensive care units.

Late on Monday, 416 Covid-19 patients were being treated in intensive care, up from around 390 in early January. The TT news agency reports that the majority (71 percent) are men and their median age is 63, figures that have remained almost the same since the start of the pandemic.

At the peak of the crisis, around a year ago, almost 560 Covid-19 patients were in intensive care in Sweden at the same time.

Swedish vocabulary: intensive care unit (ICU) – intensivvårdsavdelning (IVA)

Swedish regions discard Astra Zeneca vaccines after patients refuse it

Several of Sweden’s regions have reported cases of people refusing the Astra Zeneca vaccine against Covid-19, leading to some doses being thrown away.

The number of people refusing the Astra Zeneca is still relatively small. But in both Gothenburg and Stockholm, regional health chiefs have confirmed that refusals of the Astra Zeneca jab had led to doses being thrown away altogether. Sweden is currently behind the EU average when it comes to the percentage of the total population to have received a Covid-19 vaccine.

Sweden’s Public Health Agency and government have stressed that the risks of the vaccine are far outweighed by its benefits, in line with advice from the World Health Organisation and European Medicines Agency to continue using the Astra Zeneca vaccine as a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness from Covid-19.

Swedish vocabulary: benefit – fördel

Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell gets Astra Zeneca vaccine

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who became the face of Sweden’s coronavirus strategy last year, has been vaccinated against Covid-19 with Astra Zeneca’s jab.

Tegnell received his first dose of the vaccine at a Covid-19 vaccination hub set up at the Saab Arena in the city of Linköping on Friday, reports regional newspaper Corren.

Sweden currently only recommends the Astra Zeneca vaccine for over-65s, following reports of extremely rare blood clots. Tegnell, who turned 65 last week, told Corren he wanted “to send an important signal that Astra is a great vaccine for people over 65”.

He said he had not had any serious side effects, only a mild fever.

Swedish vocabulary: newspaper – tidning

Property prices on the increase in Sweden

Property prices rose 2.1 percent in March, according to analyst firm Valueguard. The price of a detached home rose 2.8 percent and 1.0 percent for bostadsrätter (a kind-of, sort-of condominium, the most common form of apartment ownership in Sweden).

Swedish vocabulary: detached house – villa

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