Sweden will lift its coronavirus restrictions on domestic travel on June 13th, allowing people without symptoms to travel within the country this summer.
Sweden’s previous recommendations advised against all non-essential journeys longer than one or two hours by car, but the new rules mean that people without coronavirus symptoms will be able to travel freely within the country for whatever reason, including leisure – as long as other health and safety rules are followed.
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“The situation is still serious. This does not mean that the danger is over, it does not mean that life is returning to normal. Each and every journey this summer should be carried out with ‘caution’ as the keyword,” Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Unlike in several other countries, Sweden’s domestic travel restrictions have never been enforced; they are only part of a set of strong public health recommendations, along with for example social distancing and good hand hygiene.
These other recommendations, as well as actual regulations such as a ban on public events of more than 50 people and anti-crowding rules for restaurants, remain in place. So even if you are travelling within Sweden this summer, you are expected to avoid crowds, keep a distance to other people, and so on.
Sweden has been hit much harder by the coronavirus outbreak than its Nordic neighbours. More than 4,500 people have died after testing positive for the virus, and there have been more than 41,000 confirmed cases.
But the number of coronavirus patients in hospital and intensive care units has decreased in Sweden over the past month, which Löfven said indicated that the country was “heading towards an improved situation”.
Around 300 people were being treated in intensive care for the coronavirus on Thursday in Sweden, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare, down from a peak of more than 500.
