";s:4:"text";s:5971:" According to statistics from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, half of the deceased between March and mid-May lived in eldercare homes, and another 26 per cent received tax-funded homecare. Stefan Löfven, Sweden's prime minister, has stressed that far from being COVID-19 denialists, his government are simply following the advice of the country's health authorities. This is in spite of the fact that those who are granted homecare service today are older and more vulnerable than the same group in the 1980s. The government has advised Swedes to work from home when possible and avoid crowded places like bars and restaurants, but it has stopped short of imposing formal restrictions, urging its citizens to "behave like adults" rather than fining them for leaving their homes without good reason. Mardin Baban, 36, the executive director of a non-profit in Stockholm, told Euronews that he felt comparing the Swedish approach to that of other countries was unfair. The lack of protective equipment, the continued privatisations and the precarious employment conditions have blended into a lethal coronavirus cocktail. This is the average monthly salary including housing, transport, and other benefits. Most commentary on the Covid-19 death toll in Sweden has been on the absence of lockdown, yet privatisation and precarity in eldercare should really be in the spotlight. This is the common website of the Government and the Government Offices. Denmark was the second country in Europe to announce the restrictions on March 11. Another underlying cause is the fragmented organisation of eldercare in Sweden, where a ‘free choice’ voucher system allows for unlimited profit-making private actors to compete for clients. In the 1980s, an employee of the homecare service would visit four people during a full-time shift; in 2015, that employee was expected to visit 12 in the same time. Instead, the authorities have made non-intrusive recommendations to the public at large to slow the spread of the virus: wash your hands, keep a social distance, work from home if possible and avoid unnecessary travel. A regulated profession is one that requires some kind of licence or registration in order to work in that field. People chat and drink in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. Sweden Expert. It will highlight the necessity of citizenship education in a world of pandemic and ecological risk. Lisa Pelling. It is too early to tell. Tune in to a rich variety of panels, workshops, online networking and interactive platforms. The most recent figures suggest that in Sweden, by contrast, the death toll is rising fast. Maja Göpel, scientific director of The New Institute, will open the conference with a keynote on ‘Rethinking our World: Reconciling Climate Change and Democracy’, discussed by Grace Maingi, Uraia Trust, Kenya. The Swedish government was able to secure deliveries of PPE to hospital staff. Contact us. Norway, which has 6,314 cases and 113 deaths, is planning to re-open kindergartens from April 20 and schools a week later. At the start of the pandemic in March, 40 per cent of homecare workers in Stockholm were employed on hourly contracts, from day to day and hour by hour. Norway did so a day later, and Finland imposed a 'staged lockdown' which included closing its border on March 17. Sweden Coronavirus update with statistics and graphs: total and new cases, deaths per day, mortality and recovery rates, current active cases, recoveries, trends and timeline. An even more decisive factor has been the precarious working conditions of care workers. Sweden, the pandemic and precarious working conditions. The correlation between old age and the risk of serious disease or death if infected with Covid-19 has been clear since the beginning of the pandemic. The results underline stark differences between countries and between socioeconomic groups that point to growing inequalities. Instead, they were unwittingly infected by their unprotected carers. Accessibility statement. Indispensable reading!". Denmark, a country of 5.6 million people currently has 5,819 cases and 247 deaths, and plans to re-open schools on April 15. 321 posts Stockholm. They confirm the upsurge in teleworking across all countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the report explores what this means for work–life balance and job quality.