During a press conference on Thursday morning, Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed (KD) told that Sweden will covid-test incoming travelers from China from January 7 and three weeks ahead.
Ali Mirazimi, adjunct professor and vaccine researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, understands that the government wants to take precautionary measures. At the same time, he believes that the measures will not have any major effect, as many Swedes have good protection against possible new variants.
— Since China’s transparency regarding the spread of infection is low, there is a fear that a new variant will appear and that the spread will be even worse than today. But it is very unlikely that a new omicron variant that behaves differently would enter Sweden through the Chinese traveling here, he says.
Hits hard against healthcare
Viruses and infections are hitting healthcare hard, and hospitals in at least four regions are in reinforcement mode. According to Mirazimi, however, it is unclear if a new variant would create even more strain.
— New subvariants will appear all the time all over the world. Even though there are new variants, many Swedes today have strong vaccine protection and many may have already been infected by omicron variants. The probability that a more dangerous variant would get here that penetrates our protection is not great, says Mirazimi.
Can still be infected
The purpose of the entry requirements is to delay new virus variants and, by extension, reduce the burden on the healthcare system. However, Mirazimi is skeptical that this will work.
— You can delay new virus variants for a short time. But then it applies that all Europeans do the same. A Chinese can go to a third country and infect Swedes who are there. In addition, the tests have an uncertainty factor, so it is not certain that you will detect a possible infection.