- Title: Stockholm restaurants ignoring restrictions risk closure - interior minister
- Date: 24th April 2020
- Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (APRIL 20, 2020) (REUTERS) FOUNTAIN IN CITY CENTRE PARK PEOPLE SITTING ON BENCH CHERRY TREES GIRL POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH WITH CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN RESTAURANT
- Embargoed: 8th May 2020 13:07
- Keywords: COVID-19 Michael Damberg Stockholm bars coronavirus restaurants spring
- Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA005CAUP16V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Sweden warned on Friday (April 24) it would shut restaurants and bars in the capital which did not comply with guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Swedish Interior Minister, Mikael Damberg told a news conference ''I don't want to see any crowded outdoor restaurant terraces in Stockholm or anywhere else,'' adding that restaurants and bars breaking government guidelines would be closed.
Swedish authorities have resisted calls to close restaurants, stressing the need for all measures to be sustainable over time.
The country's strategy is based on voluntary measures to slow the coronavirus outbreak enough to help hospitals cope rather than stop it in its tracks. So far, there are empty beds at intensive care units.
The government has however introduced guidelines recommending that people wash hands, keep social distance, work at home where possible and avoid travel.
More than 2,100 people have died of the virus in Sweden, fewer relative to the size of the population than in Britain, France and Spain but far more than in Denmark and Norway, where authorities have taken a stricter approach.
(Production: Ilze Filks, Aiden Nulty) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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