On January 31, 2020, the news broke that Sweden had its first confirmed case of coronavirus. It took almost a month before the second case was confirmed. Then everything went fast. At the hospital in Örnsköldsvik, Lars Rocksén followed the development with concern.
We gave them oxygen, but it wasn't enough. This disease didn't behave like anything we'd seen before, says Lars Rocksén, who is also vice chairman of the Medical Association.
It quickly became clear that the hospital couldn't continue as usual. At a morning meeting, information was shared, and within six hours, they had called in an excavator to level the ground in front of the hospital and set up tents for two patient flows and divided the emergency department into two.
We didn't have any quick ways to test patients, so they had to answer questions about fever and whether they had been traveling, he says.
In the beginning, no one knew how contagious the virus was, who would be affected, or how to treat them best.
At the same time, a sense of importance emerged. There was no one else who would solve the problem, healthcare professionals did everything they could, says Lars Rocksén.
18 years since last
In February 2020, nurse Stefan Olsson-Lasu worked at Sunderby Hospital with heart patients. When the intensive care unit at the hospital in Piteå, six miles away, needed staff, he didn't hesitate to sign up.
I had a background in intensive care but hadn't worked with it for 18 years. But I felt strongly that I wanted to contribute.
It became 12-hour shifts with patients who had extreme difficulty breathing and were regularly turned in cramped patient rooms.
It was protective gowns, aprons, and breathing masks that gave us skin irritation and neck problems. There was hardly any opportunity to go shopping for food, but we worked on. The camaraderie among colleagues was enormous, he says.
He remembers that despite the extreme workload, they didn't neglect the care of the severely ill patients. They shaved beards and combed hair.
Great information noise
At Capio Sankt Görans Hospital in Stockholm, they received the first covid patient on March 8, 2020, a patient who quickly ended up in the intensive care unit.
We tried to grasp the information and research coming from other countries, but the noise was enormous. From China, almost nothing came. From Italy, they initially said that no one over 80 survived, and in the USA, there were suggestions for more or less crazy treatments, says senior physician Martin Garland, who worked as one of the leading physicians in the intensive care unit.
He describes that one of the most difficult things during the pandemic, apart from the workload, was that relatives couldn't be involved.
In intensive care, we're used to working with severely ill patients and people dying. But we're used to having a dialogue with the family, that they become part of a dignified ending. Suddenly, that wasn't possible.
Vaccines were the turning point
He describes that he wouldn't want to be without the experiences the pandemic gave, but he wouldn't want to do it again.
I'm a different person now than before. I don't have post-traumatic stress syndrome, but I'm more listless at times. And when covid is mentioned, emotions still flood back, it was an overwhelming period.
The turning point came, according to Lars Rocksén, with the vaccines. When they started rolling out, they saw that there was an end in sight.
The relief was enormous, then we felt that this would get sorted out, he says.
January 31, 2020: The first case is confirmed in Sweden
February 2020: Covid-19 is classified as a generally and socially hazardous disease in Sweden.
March 2020: The World Health Organization (WHO) announces that covid-19 is a pandemic. The same day, the first death occurs in Sweden.
Distance learning and bans on public gatherings are introduced to reduce the spread of infection.
December 2020: The first vaccine is approved, and people in elderly care homes start getting vaccinated. Today, in 2025, 73 percent of the Swedish population has been vaccinated with at least one dose.
September 2021: Regulations, advice, and recommendations for businesses are lifted.
February 2022: Most measures against the spread of infection are lifted.
April 2022: Covid-19 is no longer classified as a generally and socially hazardous disease.
May 2023: WHO assesses that covid-19 is no longer an international threat to human health, and the acute situation is ended.
Death toll statistics
Over 21,000 people have died from covid-19 in Sweden since the disease broke out.
Globally, over seven million people have died from covid-19.
Source: National Board of Health and Welfare, World Health Organization, Public Health Agency
