The Swedish prime minister admitted health officials misjudged the second Covid-19 wave, while the independent committee criticized the country's anti-epidemic strategy.

"I think most experts in the health sector have not foreseen this wave. They only talk about sporadic clusters," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in media on December 15.

The statement was made by Prime Minister Lofven in the context of Sweden's "one-on-one" anti-epidemic, not imposing blockade orders like European countries and many countries around the world, but based on people's consciousness

The country of 10 million people has so far recorded more than 341,000 infections and more than 7,600 deaths from Covid-19, a much higher mortality rate than in neighboring Norway, Finland and Denmark.

An independent Covid-19 review committee yesterday also released a report on Sweden's response strategy, which evaluated the government's failure to protect the elderly in nursing homes from pandemic.

Committee Chairman Mats Melin said that the care of the elderly in Sweden has major structural gaps and the country is not prepared and is poorly equipped in response to a pandemic.

Neighboring countries have paid more attention to caring for the elderly during the pandemic, the committee said.

Melin argued that structural gaps in Sweden's health system could be caused by a number of agencies and organizations, but ultimately the responsibility remains with the current government of Prime Minister Lofven and the pre-government.

Sweden's statistics agency on December 14 recorded 8,088 deaths from all causes in November, the highest number since the first year the Spanish flu hit the world from 1918 to 1920.

Prime Minister Lofven and epidemiologist Anders Tegnell repeatedly defended the country's anti-Covid-19 strategy, even though Sweden is one of the countries with the highest rates of Covid-19 deaths per capita.

Instead of imposing a blockade from the start like neighboring countries, Swedish officials only recommended people to social distance, limit congregation, while still allowing schools, bars and restaurants to open to avoid

However, Swedish and Tegnell officials drew criticism for these decisions.

Sweden has seen a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases since the fall, and the health system is under great pressure.