Sweden should have done more to combat coronavirus to prevent it having a much higher national death rate than neighbouring countries, the man behind the country’s pandemic strategy has said.

The Swedish government’s decision not to impose lockdown measures as strictly as elsewhere in Europe is facing growing criticism, after nearly 4,500 people died in the country’s outbreak of the disease.

Sweden has a lower COVID-19 mortality rate than European countries such as Britain, Spain and Italy which enforced
stringent lockdowns.

But, with 443 deaths per million people, it has the eighth highest number of coronavirus-related deaths per capita in the world, and had the highest COVID-19 mortality rate in Europe for parts of May, according to research group Ourworldindata.org.

Sweden has a higher mortality rate than in Denmark, Norway and Finland, where schools, shops and businesses were closed.

The country relied on voluntary measures, social distancing and common-sense hygiene advice to stem the outbreak of coronavirus.

Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health agency, said that in hindsight the country should have done more.

He told Swedish radio on Wednesday: “If we were to run into the same disease, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would end up doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done.

“Yes, I think we could have done better in what we did in Sweden, clearly.”

Sweden shut care homes to visitors in late March, but around half of the deaths in the country have been among elderly people in care facilities.

Mr Tegnell said it was hard to know which measures taken elsewhere might have been the most effective in Sweden.

He said: “Maybe we will find this out now that people have started removing measures, one at a time.

“And then maybe we will get some kind of information on what, in addition to what we did, we could do without adopting a total lockdown.”

Prime Minister Stefan Lovfen said earlier this week that the government would launch an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

Sweden’s Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren has defended the government’s handling and said: “The government has been, at all times, prepared to introduce wider, further measures recommended by the expert authority.”

He also told the Aftonbladet daily that the overall strategy of limiting the disease while also protecting workers and companies had been the right one.

Mr Hallengren said: “At the same time, we have to admit that when it comes to elderly care and the spread of infection, that has not worked. That is obvious.”

He said. “Too many old people have died here.”

Mr Hallengren also said the no government or public health agency has results yet of what the best strategy would have been during the pandemic.

The government has received criticism for failing to reach the target of 100,000 tests per week, hitting only a third of that last week.

Bjorn Olsen, professor of Infectious Medicine at Uppsala University, said Sweden’s strategy had been catastrophic.

He said: “This is one of Sweden’s biggest embarrassments and most tragic events, (in) all categories.”

Mr Olsen also called for a change of course to start testing and do more contact tracing.

He added: “As long as people are dying, we must try to change.”

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