Finland and Norway have offered medical assistance to Sweden, as their neighbour faces an increasingly severe second wave of coronavirus that has stretched clinical staff and intensive care capacity to the limit in some areas.
Sweden has yet to formally ask for outside help but authorities in Stockholm have requested assistance from the country’s military and could get aid from less hard-hit regions.
“We have not received an official request for help, but we assess on a daily basis what the hospital situation looks like and we are, of course, ready to help Sweden if we can,” Kirsi Varhila, permanent secretary at Finland’s ministry of social affairs and health, told Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.