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COVID-19

Sweden to announce decision on potential Covid-19 travel restrictions

In a press conference later today, Sweden's health minister Jakob Forssmed and department head of the Public Health Agency, Sara Byfors, are expected to make an announcement on whether Sweden will introduce restrictions for travellers arriving from China.

Sweden to announce decision on potential Covid-19 travel restrictions
Health Minister Jakob Forssmed. File photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Yesterday, the EU’s crisis response mechanism (IPCR) recommended that member states start testing travellers arriving from China for Covid-19.

This recommendation is advisory and not legally binding, leaving it up to member states to decide whether to introduce tests or a testing requirement.

Earlier this week, Sara Byfors said that it is pointless if Sweden is the only country to introduce a negative test requirement.

Byfors and Forssmed are expected to announce whether Sweden will introduce a test requirement for travellers arriving from China in a press conference today at 9:30, which The Local will be covering.

Here’s our article from earlier this week going over what we know so far about the possible negative test requirement, and who it could affect.

China has lessened many of its Covid-19 restrictions in recent weeks. Next week, it will start producing passports for its citizens again, and the requirement to quarantine upon return to China will be removed.

However, there is still a high level of Covid-19 infection in the country, which has led multiple countries to introduce restrictions on travellers from China or plan to do so.

On Tuesday, China threatened to “take countermeasures”.

“This lacks a scientific basis and some methods are completely unacceptable,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry.

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SAS

Scandinavian airline SAS loses half a billion kroner in one month

Scandinavian airline SAS lost 2.3 billion Swedish kronor, around 1.5 billion Danish kroner, in the months November 2023-February 2024, including 500 million kroner in February alone.

Scandinavian airline SAS loses half a billion kroner in one month

The figures come from accounts which the company is obliged to report each month as part of a bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11) process it is undergoing in the United States.

The accounting shows that in February, SAS operated with a loss of 822 million Swedish kronor, which corresponds to 535 million Danish kroner or 835 million Norwegian kroner.

Although the company’s February losses are larger than expected, turnover at the airline is in line with expectations according to analyst Jacob Pedersen of Danish bank Sydbank.

“Revenue in February 2024 is only modestly better than in the same month last year, despite a marked increase in turnover. This progress is naturally positive but also driven by a lift in revenues from the leap year this year, which doesn’t raise costs by the same level,” he said in a written comment.

From November to February, SAS posted a turnover of just under 11.8 billion Swedish kronor, equivalent to just over 7.7 billion Danish kroner.

For February alone, turnover was just under 2.9 billion Swedish kronor, around 1.9 billion kroner.

This means that, compared to February in 2023, SAS has raised revenues by around 400 million Swedish kronor.

Pedersen, who closely follows aviation markets, said that the February figures are evidence “significantly more work” must be done by SAS to catch competitors on revenue.

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