Man behind Sweden's coronavirus strategy says he would do things 'differently' now

The man responsible Sweden’s decision to adopt more lenient measures in the fight against COVID-19 has said in hindsight he might have chosen a different policy.

Anders Tegnell, the country’s state epidemiologist, told Swedish radio show Ekot on Wednesday morning that his view has changed since learning more about the disease.

"If we were to encounter the same disease again, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done," he said.

He also said that too many people died too soon in Sweden.

But Tegnell later clarified that he still considers Sweden’s strategy to be “good,” stressing that “improvements” are always possible.

"There's nothing to indicate that we would have had a totally different outcome if we had implemented more drastic measures,” he told news agency TT.

"Britain did that but did not have a good outcome.”

The country has become the subject of intense interest around the world after it took a more hands-off approach to the pandemic.

It banned events involving more than 50 people, blocked access to care homes and closed universities and some schools.

But it relied primarily on voluntary social distancing to stem the spread of the virus.

It has been criticized by its neighbours, particularly for its higher death rate – 4,542 have died with the virus, much lower than Norway (237) and Denmark (580) where stricter measures were in place.

But its economy, in contrast to many of its European allies, recorded growth in the first quarter of the year (of 0.4%).

It is predicted to shrink for the year overall, however, in line with most of the world’s developed economies.