The Swedish government has presented an emergency law that should make it possible to impose stricter restrictions in the fight against the coronavirus.
The new powers would take effect next month and make it possible, for example, to close companies or to shut down public transport. The emergency law also offers the possibility to set a maximum for the number of people in specific public spaces.
Violators will be fined, health minister Lena Hallengren said Monday. However, parliament has yet to agree to the intended restrictions for which can be imposed from January 10.
The government is now only authorized to use such coercive measures against civilians and to bring society to a standstill if the country is at war. Due to the absence of stringent measures, Sweden was considered an exception in the fight against the virus.
The government is anxious about increasing the number of diagnosed cases in the second wave of the virus. It has therefore introduced more and more restrictions in recent months.
However, with nearly 40,000 infections per million inhabitants, the country has about as many corona infections as countries where stringent measures have been taken, such as France and Spain.
The number of deaths per million inhabitants attributed to the virus is 817 in Sweden and lower than in those two countries.
