[jeltz]

No, they did not. The Swedish government stopped testing to conserve resources due to a severe lack of test kits.

I have some criticism of the lack of transparency from the Swedish government, but they did not stop testing to hide anything. The lack of testing resources was very real.

[cjblomqvist]

In reply to jariel: Because they've said so, continuously and consistently from the start, with quite logical arguments. You could check the press conferences they hold every day if you want to see for yourself.

It's way too early to say (which is also pointed out by the government), but ICU cases (which is the critical metric here, since it's quite reliable and comparable, and the metric that matters the most for the Healthcare system) is showing signs of decline (or at least stabilizing).

In unsure if our approach is the right one (time will tell). It's clear that the government is taking this situation very seriously though, just using a different strategy. And honestly it seems to at least not be much worse than any other country at this point.

[jariel]

In the face of the fact that the number thing the WHO is recommending, and which we know helps a lot, is testing - you are essentially saying that the Swedish healthcare pandemic response is incompetent.

Testing has increased radically in almost every advanced country, in neighboring Norway, they have 4x more testing - do you not think that Sweden, a rich, advanced nation would somehow be able to figure out how to expand testing?

The testing/capita figures are here [1] where you can see that Sweden is, in fact, testing quite a bit behind most other rich nations (though not far behind Denmark).

So the question is, why are they failing so badly on this venue? Or have they actually decided to focus elsewhere?

I find it easier to believe they are actually competent, but taking a different approach and they are obfuscating/lying about their ability to expand testing.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing

Edit: I am adding the official Swedish statement as reference: "Almost all those who get Covid-19 have mild symptoms and recover without requiring medical care. There are thus no medical reasons to test all those who have a cough, sore threat, fever or other symptoms that may indicate a Covid-19 infection, but may in fact be caused by another type of infection. The Public Health Agency of Sweden recommends testing of those people who have a very high fever or acute respiratory symptoms and require hospital care." [2]

Unfortunately, they indicate that 'there is no medical reason to test for Covid unless high fever' which I think is a problematic statement in the context of a pandemic. Of course, there are 'medical reasons to test' beyond those factors.

[2] https://www.krisinformation.se/en/hazards-and-risks/disaster...