"It is now extremely important that we protect the elderly," said state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell at a press conference in mid-March in connection with the general spread of infection in society.

A month and a half later, on April 28, more than 2,000 people had died as a result of covid-19 - and almost half of them lived in elderly homes, according to Statistics Sweden's statistics.

"It is a failure that we have failed to protect our elderly," stated Social Minister Lena Hallengren (S) in SVT's Morning Study.

How could it go?

Juliana Jihem, 31, points up to the fourth floor of the elderly home in Botkyrka municipality. There lived her uncle Moses Ntanda.

"Moses was like a father to me," she says.

The elderly residence introduced a ban on visits on March 12, but the infection took in anyway. A month later, Moses and several other residents died in the suites of covid-19.

The alarm to Ivo

SVT has for a long time been trying to understand how the infection could affect elderly homes around the country.

We have gone through hundreds of alarms to the Inspection for Healthcare and Care (Ivo), talked to elderly care staff, been in contact with relatives of deceased and processed data from authorities.

On March 18, Stefan Amér, CEO of Familjeläkarna, sends an e-mail to the Stockholm hospital elite. It confirms what did not happen - the infection has taken hold on the elderly residents. Photo: Stockholm Region

More than half of the Ivo alarms from the elderly care center describe the lack of protective equipment as the decisive factor for the spread of infection becoming so great (see fact box).

Recurring risk factors are also: staff who move between sick and healthy, staff who go sick to work and staff who are infected even though they have had no symptoms.

Excerpt from three of the alarms that have come in to the Inspection for Healthcare and Care, Ivo, concerning elderly housing. Photo: Ivo

The regions' surveys

This week, both Stockholm and Sörmland, two of the most vulnerable regions, presented their own surveys of all elderly homes based on responses from business managers.

But then, lack of protective equipment was not listed as a decisive reason for the spread of infection. When the managers were allowed to give their picture of the matter, it was instead staff who go sick to work and staff with asymptomatic infection who were identified as the greatest risks. This shows raw data from Stockholm's survey that SVT has taken part in.

In the Stockholm survey, it appears that the large housing units with a lot of staff are the hardest hit. 40 per cent, of the residents in Stockholm with infection, have a staff of over 75 people. Photo: Stockholm Region

Testimonies from elderly care staff, with whom SVT has spoken, largely confirm the picture that emerged in the Ivo alarm as well as in the regional surveys.

- We got proper equipment quite late as many of the staff have become infected. And they started testing those who were sick too late, more people could have survived if they had taken samples earlier, says an employee at a retirement home in Stockholm.

Another believes that a contributing cause of the spread is the free will.

- We can't lock in the elderly. If they want to go to the hairdresser, we can not stop them, they are free people, says a nurse.

The betrayal of society

Sweden has now passed 3,000 deaths as a result of covid-19 and this week it was reported that all the regions of the country have found infection in some elderly housing.

For Juliana Jihem, her uncle's death feels like a betrayal of society.

- He loved to work, when you work you pay taxes and then I think you should get something back. He didn't get it.