Dear Reader:

* Regarding the anti-malaria medication Chloroquine, I was wrong: it was used in hospitals around the world for treatment of Covid-19 as an off-label medication. It is a common practice to use a  medication  that was approved to treat condition X (ex: malaria), for condition Y (ex: Covid-19), but such is supposed to be done in a monitored way, paying close attention to see if it helps more than it harms.

In case of Chloroquine, the study in Brazil that I mentioned above resulted in Covid-19 patients who took the medication developing potentially fatal irregular heart beat. A recent article in  www. newsweek. com/ Swedish-hospitals-chloroquine-covid-19-side-effects reads: “Several hospitals in Sweden have reportedly stopped administered chloroquine to coronavirus patients following reports the drug was causing adverse side effects.. side effects reported to include cramps and the loss of peripheral vision”. (Therefore, I imagine that Chloroquine is no longer used as an off label Covid-19 medication in most if not all countries).

* Sweden, where social isolation practices as well as hygiene practices are in effect, but no lockdown: there has been a significant increase in daily new cases on April 21, 22, 23 and 24 (an increase of 420 cases in four days, which is an average of 105 cases per day), and the active cases graph is still going up, not showing any flattening inclination. On the other hand, the other Scandinavian countries- they have lesser daily new cases recently, and their active cases graphs look better, with flattening movements.

Reported today (worldometers): Sweden has 14,980 active cases; with a population of 10 millions, rounded, it’s 1,498 active cases per million population. Denmark has 2,358 active cases; with a population of 5.8 millions, it’s rounded: 407 active cases per million population. Norway has 7,260 active cases; with a population of 5.4 millions, rounded:1,344 active cases per million population, and Finland has 1,789 active cases; with a population of 5.5 millions, it’s rounded, 323 active cases per million population.

Here is the comparison of active cases per million population: Sweden:  1,498, Denmark:407, Norway: 1,344, Finland: 323. Even though Denmark is much more densely populated than Sweden, Sweden has 3.7 times the number of active case per million population (M) than Denmark, slightly more than Norway’s and 4.6 times that of Finland.

– the severity of the illness in those infected in Sweden has been greater than that in the other countries, and so has the number of death, currently 2,192 in Sweden (217 per 1 million population), 418 in Denmark (72 per 1 M), 201 in Norway (37 per M) and 186 in Finland (34 per M).

Rounded, per population of 1 million, in Sweden there are 3 times the number of Covid-19 deaths than in Denmark (even though Denmark is much more populated),  6 times the number of deaths in Norway and in Finland, each. (It looks like, to me, that the non-lockdown policy brought about a greater severity of the disease and more deaths, that is, a higher death/ mortality rate).

Looks like Denmark has done better than the others. A lockdown was established March 13, further restrictions established March 18. Finland declared a state of emergency March 16, a partial lockdown. Norway established a partial lockdown March 12, and Sweden recommended some restrictions, such as on March 24, restaurants were recommended to “increase the space between tables” (Wikipedia), but restaurants remained open.

anita