Sweden's coronavirus deaths exceed 4,000

Sweden has seen its COVID-19 death toll rise to 4,029 as of Monday as a total of 33,843 cases have been reported, while 1,957 patients have been treated in intensive care.

Over the past few days, there has been a decline in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, with 31 new cases registered between Sunday and Monday. However, Monday also marked the end of a long weekend, which means there is a lag in reporting, Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell noted at a Monday press conference.

"It is very hard to judge where (we) are actually heading right now. There have been very few cases over the past few days but we will likely see an accumulation of cases this coming week... We have unfortunately exceeded 4,000 deaths during this period," Tegnell told the press.

Tegnell added that when the epidemic was at its peak there were 400 COVID-19 infections recorded per week in Sweden. Now there are between 60 and 70 new cases per week. In addition, the number of fatalities at nursing homes has decreased. At one point there were well over 100 deaths reported per week and now the figure is down to 30, Tegnell said at the briefing.

The government introduced a national ban on visits to elderly homes in late March. While Tegnell did not believe visiting restrictions should be completely lifted, he said they can be gradually eased if done "under controlled forms."

"It is very important for the elderly and for their relatives to be in contact with one another," Tegnell said.

After the long weekend, data from Swedish telecoms company Telia showed that long-distance journeys from Stockholm to the southern region of Skane and to the Baltic island of Gotland increased by 156 percent and 122 percent respectively compared to the previous week, Swedish Radio reported. But compared to the same weekend last year, visits to Gotland were down by up to 60 percent.