Public health, surveillance policies and actions to prevent community spread of COVID-19 in Denmark, Serbia and Sweden

Abstract

Aim: This study investigates the non-medical public health and surveillance policies and actions for tackling the community spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Serbia and Sweden during the first five months of the pandemic in 2020. Method: The study is inspired by a process-tracing design for case study with a focus on the non-medical measures and surveillance strategies implemented by the three countries. The comprehensive collection and study of national documents formed the basis of the document analysis. Results: The Danish strategy was to prolong the transmission period, preventing high numbers of infected cases from impacting their healthcare capacity. The government’s strategy was characterized by strict governance elements, health guidelines and behavioural recommendations. In Serbia, the main strategy was to prevent the spread and control of the infectious disease by shifting all human and material resources towards the function of controlling the spread. Serbia applied the strictest measures in the fight against coronavirus in relation to other countries in the region and in Europe. The Swedish strategy focused more on recommendations than requirements to motivate the public to modify their behaviours voluntarily. Sweden’s loose pandemic strategy implementation focused on voluntary and stepwise action rather than legislation and compulsory measures. Conclusions: The public health policies and actions implemented to prevent community spread of COVID-19 in Denmark, Serbia and Sweden varied during the first five months of the pandemic. The differences in their response were due to delays in implementation, inconsistencies in perspectives towards the outbreak and the capacity of each country in terms of their pandemic preparedness and response.

Tobler’s law and wavefront patterns in the spatial spread of COVID-19 across Europe during the Delta and Omicron waves

“…Naturally, spread also occurs stochastically and along bidirectional constrained mobility network patterns, including seeded infections imported from far-away places facilitated by international air travel such that non-proximate spread occurs simultaneously to proximate wavefront-type spread [ 16 ]. There are also idiosyncrasies of national policymaking [ 17 ]. For example, the UK never fell below the threshold of 300 new infections per million people after the lifting of most public health restrictions in England on 19 July 2021.…”

Involuntary Resistance

“…A ban on public gatherings of more than 500 persons was followed by recommendations for even smaller audiences. In addition, a ban on visiting retirement homes was implemented to safeguard the elderly, high-risk population (Andersen et al, 2022 ).…”

Coronavirus Pandemic as a Factor in the Strengthening of Neo-Authoritarianism

“…Були випадки переслідування журналістів за критику влади з питань протидії коронавірусу. Утім позитив є в тому, що після звернення президента Сербії А. Вучича уряд А. Брнабіч скасував цей указ [19].…”