Sebastian Hughes
Sweden halted its COVID-19 testing regime on Wednesday, even for those who are showing symptoms of infection, as many European countries end pandemic restrictions, the Associated Press reported.
The country’s mobile city-square tent sites, drive-in swab centers and home-delivered tests, which each provided key data to track the virus’ spread, have ended, the AP reported. Only symptomatic health and elderly care workers and the most vulnerable will be entitled to free PCR tests moving forward.
“We have reached a point where the cost and relevance of the testing is no longer justifiable,” Swedish Public Health Agency chief Karin Tegmark Wisell told the national broadcast SVT, the AP reported. “If we were to have extensive testing adapted to everyone who has COVID-19, that would mean half a billion kronor a week (about $55 million) and 2 billion a month ($220 million).”
“Sweden is leading the way, and other nations will inevitably follow,” Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School, told the AP. “We don’t need extensive testing for the sake of testing, but we must look nevertheless in sensitive settings such as hospitals, nursing homes and other sensitive places where there are very vulnerable people.”
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