The government was supposed to practice – didn't discuss nursing homes
Already in early March, Social Minister Lena Hallengren, S, and the Public Health Authority would practice how to prevent the infection from spreading.
But the important point about the risks for the elderly is never discussed, Expressen can reveal.
Hallengren does not remember the meeting.
Thousands of elderly people have died in the suites after the corona in the spring.
The government has on several occasions repeated that it is a failure that so many people have died in the homes of the elderly.
- What I think is a big problem is that we have so many people who have died in our elderly homes. It has nothing to do with the strategy, Stefan Löfven said in an interview in Agenda in SVT on June 14.
But as early as March 4, one week before the first Swedish death and two weeks before the deaths began on elderly housing, the issue of the risk of contagion in elderly housing was at the table of Social Minister Lena Hallengren.
That day, the Minister of Social Affairs had invited the Public Health Authority and the National Board of Health for an exercise.
The scenarios that were practiced during a two-hour meeting on March 4 ranged from "continued as now", "several cases in Sweden but no extensive spread of infection", "extensive spread of infection in Sweden and" full scale pandemic ".
The meeting invitation, which was sent out on February 26, was entitled "Practice scenario covid-19, March 4". On the agenda for the meeting, risks for elderly residents had their own point along with corresponding risks in the school, according to e-mail conversations between the Government Offices and the Public Health Authority, as well as a memorandum for a meeting at the Government Offices on March 4, which Expressen took note of.
But even though risks for the elderly were on the agenda, it was not discussed at the meeting, according to state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
Nor were risks and potential scenarios discussed if covid-19 were to be established in vulnerable areas.
- We did not discuss either the suburb or the elderly, what we discussed was primarily healthcare, says Anders Tegnell.
The meeting was almost exclusively about ensuring that healthcare would cope with the pandemic, despite the fact that responsibility for healthcare lies with the regions.
The National Board of Health was later commissioned to coordinate and scale up the number of intensive care units.
Responsibility for housing for the elderly rests with the municipalities, but would also have been discussed at the meeting, according to a memorandum written by the secretary of the ministry, Kim Brolin.
But unlike the health care, the government did not take the same responsibility for the elderly. It was not until almost a month after the first scenario meeting that a visitor ban on elderly housing was introduced.
Are you surprised that no measures were taken for the elderly?
- We are not responsible for that. We generate information for society as a whole, says Tegnell.
Confusion about who is in charge
Prior to the March 4 meeting, confusion prevailed over who was responsible for developing the basis for various scenarios to practice. The Public Health Authority believed that the government should stand for it.
On February 27, Britta Björkholm, Head of Department at the Public Health Authority, announced that she, Anders Tegnell and Head of Department Karin Tegmark Wisell are happy to participate in the meeting.
"The top of the basis for the exercise would be sent out a little in advance, so we have time to prepare," she writes in the same e-mail.
But no evidence exists. Kim Brolin replies:
"The idea is that the evidence comes from you, ie exercises based on your panda plans."
Hallengren does not remember the exercises
When Expressen reaches the Minister of Social Affairs, she says that she does not remember the meeting on March 4, the first where the Public Health Authority, representatives of the government and the National Board of Health would practice scenarios, and which she invited to.
Did you talk about risks in the elderly before the pandemic broke out in Sweden?
- You cannot refer to a meeting on March 4. We have had so many meetings. You get to talk to Sofia (Brändström, Prime Minister's Press Secretary).
Did you have so many meetings where you practiced scenarios before the pandemic?
- I have no comment on that.
There are no submitted documents from the meeting and no meeting notes are recorded in the Ministry of Social Affairs.
"The meeting was therefore about different scenarios regarding the spread of the corona virus, besides this we do not go into what was discussed in detail at the meeting," writes press secretary Jasmina Sofic to Expressen.
The public health authority has secretly stamped the various scenarios.
