Aid for the municipalities is delayed - authorities have been balling the issue between them for two weeks

Already on March 17, the government commissioned the National Board of Health and Welfare to secure access to protective equipment and other medical material. One would both investigate the needs and make decisions on redistribution between regions and municipalities, it was called.

Over the past weeks, there have been a number of alarms about deficiencies in the stocks of protective materials, and some municipalities have also expressed criticism of the region's priorities.

At the same time, SVT's review shows that the assignment of coordination has wandered between several different authorities.

As early as the day when the National Board of Social Affairs received the assignment, a request was sent to the Swedish Agency for Social Protection and Preparedness. It was stated that "The National Board of Health and Welfare has no opportunity to be a point of contact with all individual municipalities and private actors in the area", and therefore MSB asked for help, "proposed via the county administrative boards".

The county administrative boards have since held discussions with both the National Board of Health and Welfare, MSB and SKR, Sweden's municipalities and regions, and found a possible arrangement for the coordination.

But - it requires a new government decision, which gives the county administrative boards the formal power to redistribute the protective material. The county administrative boards have therefore sent their own request to the government, asking for a mandate for the redistribution, which is thus still not in progress.

In a written comment, Svante Werger, special adviser at MSB, states that it is "understandable that there is a frustration" but that the issue of resource allocation "is a little more complicated than one might initially think".

According to Werger, it is "not too easy" to develop the tools, but according to Werger, MSB and the others involved "work as quickly as we can to meet the needs that exist."

The county administrative boards are already gathering the municipalities' situation pictures about the corona virus, which shows major problems regarding both protective equipment and other (see fact box).

And although there is thus no possibility of deciding on redistributions, several county administrative boards have already started collecting information on the municipalities' need for protective equipment.