Sweden to send mass text to population on Christmas Covid rules
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Published: 11 Dec, 2020 CET.
Updated: Fri 11 Dec 2020 09:56 CET
Sweden's public health agency is to send out text messages to every mobile phone number in the country hoping to drum home recommendations designed to prevent an explosion of infection over Christmas and the New Year.
"We are now in a difficult situation ahead of Christmas and New Year and we want to give the Swedish people yet another reminder," Sweden's home minister Mikael Damberg said at a press conference announcing the mass text on Friday morning.
Sweden's Public Health Agency last Tuesday issued new guidelines which come into force on Monday December 14th, requesting that people in Sweden limit their socialising over the festive period if possible to a bubble of eight people, avoid new contacts, meet outside as much as possible, and avoid public transport as much as possible.
The mass text messaging is being done together with Sweden's four biggest telecoms operators, Telia, Tele2, Telenor and Tre. According to the TT newswire, there are about 22 million mobile phone contracts in the country of 10 million people.
"They have come forward voluntarily to help carry this out practically. They are performing an important service to reduce the spread of infection in Sweden," said digitalisation minister Anders Ygeman.
The text in the SMS, in Swedish, will read: "Information from the authorities: Follow the new tighter advice in order to stop the spread of infection. Read more on the Krisinformation website."
It will not itself mention any of the actual recommendations for Christmas, instead enjoining recipients to go online and check up on what they are.
At the press Damberg reiterated that, although there are no fines or other sanctions for not following the recommendations, they should not be seen as voluntary.
"The recommendations from the agencies aren't some kind of tips for the public -- they should be followed," he said.
At the press conference Morgan Olofsson, the crisis preparedness agency's communication chief, said that the text messages "obviously and unfortunately" could only be sent out in Swedish and encouraged Swedes with an immigrant background and good Swedish language skills to translate the message for those who understand Swedish less well.
"We think this way -- if all of you who read this message, if you help, in your language to the extent that you can, to spread the message further, then everyone will understand how serious the situation is, and that way we can save lives," he said.
The Krisinformation website itself contains links to information about the coronavirus in Sweden in other languages, which you can find here. The Local has also published a Q&A about what the rules mean in English.
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"We are now in a difficult situation ahead of Christmas and New Year and we want to give the Swedish people yet another reminder," Sweden's home minister Mikael Damberg said at a press conference announcing the mass text on Friday morning.
Sweden's Public Health Agency last Tuesday issued new guidelines which come into force on Monday December 14th, requesting that people in Sweden limit their socialising over the festive period if possible to a bubble of eight people, avoid new contacts, meet outside as much as possible, and avoid public transport as much as possible.
The mass text messaging is being done together with Sweden's four biggest telecoms operators, Telia, Tele2, Telenor and Tre. According to the TT newswire, there are about 22 million mobile phone contracts in the country of 10 million people.
"They have come forward voluntarily to help carry this out practically. They are performing an important service to reduce the spread of infection in Sweden," said digitalisation minister Anders Ygeman.
The text in the SMS, in Swedish, will read: "Information from the authorities: Follow the new tighter advice in order to stop the spread of infection. Read more on the Krisinformation website."
It will not itself mention any of the actual recommendations for Christmas, instead enjoining recipients to go online and check up on what they are.
At the press Damberg reiterated that, although there are no fines or other sanctions for not following the recommendations, they should not be seen as voluntary.
"The recommendations from the agencies aren't some kind of tips for the public -- they should be followed," he said.
At the press conference Morgan Olofsson, the crisis preparedness agency's communication chief, said that the text messages "obviously and unfortunately" could only be sent out in Swedish and encouraged Swedes with an immigrant background and good Swedish language skills to translate the message for those who understand Swedish less well.
"We think this way -- if all of you who read this message, if you help, in your language to the extent that you can, to spread the message further, then everyone will understand how serious the situation is, and that way we can save lives," he said.
The Krisinformation website itself contains links to information about the coronavirus in Sweden in other languages, which you can find here. The Local has also published a Q&A about what the rules mean in English.
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