Sweden could have prevented nearly 40 per cent of the coronavirus deaths in its first wave had it imposed a timely lockdown, a study suggests.
While neighbouring governments closed shops, bars, schools and restaurants, and in some cases ordered citizens to stay in their homes, Sweden mainly relied in the early stages of the pandemic on recommendations and a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people.
Over the first six months nearly 6,000 Swedes died of Covid-19, one of the highest per capita death rates in Europe at that time and substantially worse than other Nordic states.
Three economists in Germany have now estimated that at least 2,000 of those lives might have been saved with a prompt lockdown.
The group, led by Benjamin
