In this April 22, 2020, photo, people gather for a drink at an outdoor bar in Stockholm, Sweden, despite the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. (Anders Wiklund/TT via AP)
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s Parliament held a 15-minute remembrance for the victims of the pandemic in a country that has seen nearly 5,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlen said “this particular moment is for all of them. Those who lost their jobs, their health, their lives. But also, for those who remained when a relative’s life ended.”
Norlen told the dark-clad, somber-looking lawmakers who stood for a minute’ silence in the Riksdagen: “Before we continue our fight against the pandemic, we stop together and acknowledge their suffering, their sacrifice. … And we say to all those who now mourn and suffer: You are not alone.”
Sweden, which is an outlier in the way it is handling the outbreak, has one of the world’s highest death rates per capita.