Death toll from coronavirus in Sweden tops 1,000

A total of 1,033 people have died and 11,445 people have been confirmed infected with COVID-19 in Sweden, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency on Tuesday.

Fresh figures from the agency also showed 497 tested positive over the past 24 hours, and 916 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in intensive care.

However, at its daily press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, the agency also pointed out that there is a lag in reporting after the long Easter weekend so the number of the dead is likely higher than Tuesday's figures indicate.

Among those found infected so far, there are many Swedish citizens born in other countries, like those born in Somalia, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

"These are primarily people who have sought medical care and have been sick," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said of the cases reported so far. "Now we are testing more and more health care personnel and so this will likely change quite a lot," Tegnell added.

Tegnell was asked by reporters to respond to an op-ed published in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Tuesday which has stirred up debate about Sweden's strategy to combat COVID-19.

Signed by 22 researchers, professors and doctors, the article criticized the Public Health Agency on a number of points, slamming what the article authors described as a refusal to acknowledge the fact that asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus may have contributed to the high mortality rate among Sweden's elderly population.

Sweden's mortality rate stands out in international comparisons, the article stated, and so publicly elected politicians must step in and change the course of Sweden's strategy, according to the 22 signatories.

Tegnell, on his part, objected to the article's claim that the Public Health Agency does not have a proper strategy for dealing with the pandemic. He said the article authors relied on faulty mortality figures and insisted that it is hard to compare different countries' mortality rates since countries follow different procedures for registering deaths.