SVT reviews: 30 percent mortality rate in the country's elderly housing

People are angry at the cemetery in Solna. Corona pandemic has changed the way we are used to funerals. But for Marjan Alibabai Laki it is important to say goodbye to his mother on the spot.

- She was only 76 years old, she was good-natured and had so much desire for life. She was stubborn and struggling until the last second, I saw it in her eyes.

Her mother Shokat Eghtedari is one of 13 people who have died in the suites of covid-19 at the elderly residence Persikan in Kista in Stockholm. Peach is one of the places that stands out when SVT has investigated the death toll on the country's elderly homes during the corona pandemic.

"I can promise that my staff and I have done everything we have been able to do," says Elisabet Keussen, CEO of Kavat Care, who runs Persikan.

The Swedish corona strategy has been criticized for failing to protect the elderly and frail - and lately the death toll on the elderly has become a burning issue. But Thomas Lindén on the National Board of Health has toned down the discussion about the death toll and said, among other things, that it is "the same every year".

Using data from the search service Ratsit, we have mapped the mortality rate during some of the most intense corona weeks by comparing an average for the corresponding period in previous years.

SVT's review shows a death toll of nearly 30 per cent for elderly residents across the country. If we look specifically at the Stockholm region, which has been severely affected during the corona pandemic, the mortality rate is 100 percent. The statistics say nothing about how many people have died in covid-19, but it gives an indication of where the infection has gone.

We see around 40 elderly homes around the country that stand out a lot and where mortality has more than doubled - read more here.

When SVT goes through the National Board of Health's own statistics, we see an excess of 40 per cent during the same period that we have investigated. Something the authority now confirms.

- We know that a severe pandemic has hit us and we know that we do not have any vaccine that we have in common flu epidemics. With that in mind, we can still see that with the measures we have taken largely we have succeeded in protecting the elderly, says Thomas Lindén at the National Board of Health and Welfare.