Despite the fact that in some places it has been difficult to get tested, 42,969 new cases of covid-19 have been reported to the Public Health Agency over the New Year weekend.

- We have a very high spread of infection in all regions and in all age groups, says Britta Björkholm, head of department at the Swedish Public Health Agency.

December 30 was recorded with 11,507 cases - the highest number in a day since the beginning of the pandemic.

The previous record on one and the same day was 23 December 2020 with 11,376 cases.

Britta Björkholm believes that the infection will increase even more.

The omikron virus variant is one of the reasons.

- We know that it has gained momentum.

In many regions a shift has taken place, the majority of those infected carry the omicron variant.

This means further restrictions

If the spread of infection were to increase, which it has now done, the government and the Swedish Public Health Agency have said they are prepared to introduce further restrictions in step 3 of their so-called action plan (today, step 2 applies).

This would mean, among other things, a call for all adults to limit their close contacts, that the upper secondary school partly switches to distance education and that restaurants are given limited opening hours.

At the same time, there are several countries where the spread of infection is greater than in Sweden, including Denmark, where many want to see relief in the restrictions because the omicron variant is considered to cause milder disease.

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The virology professor, Niklas Arnberg, believes that omicrons can be the way out of the pandemic.

Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP / TT, SVT