Italy Claps Back At Sweden Over Healthcare Dig

Italy's ambassador to Sweden has snapped back at the Scandinavian country's state epidemiologist after he suggested Italy's healthcare system was not as good as Sweden's

Stockholm, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th May, 2020 ) :Italy's ambassador to Sweden has snapped back at the Scandinavian country's state epidemiologist after he suggested Italy's healthcare system was not as good as Sweden's.

In a weekend interview on Swedish Radio, Anders Tegnell -- the face of Sweden's controversial softer approach to the new coronavirus -- lamented his country's high death toll as it approached 4,000.

More than 90 percent of Sweden's dead have been over the age of 70, and three-quarters have been either nursing home residents or receiving at-home care.

"I would have thought that, in a modern and wealthy society like Sweden, we ought to be able to protect our elderly," Tegnell said.

The Swedish death toll "shouldn't need to look like it did in China or maybe even in Italy, where they have less resources for this kind of thing," he added.

Italy's ambassador Mario Cospito rejected the suggestion that his country was poorly placed to deal with the pandemic.

In a statement posted on the embassy's website late Wednesday, he presented data indicating that Italy's healthcare system was superior to Sweden's.

"According to the WHO, the Italian healthcare system is number two in the world when it comes to efficiency and functionality, after France. Sweden is ranked number 23 in the same classification," he noted.

"Life expectancy at birth is 83.4 years in Italy, the longest in the world after Spain. In Sweden life expectancy is 82.2 years," he added.

"The number of hospital beds per thousand inhabitants is 3.4 in Italy, in Sweden 2.2."Cospito went on to say that other countries should express solidarity with Italy rather than criticise it, because it was the first in Europe to be hit by the pandemic and, unlike other countries, "did not have time on its side" to prepare for the full brunt of it.

Sweden, a country of 10.3 million people, has reported 4,420 deaths, or 418 per million inhabitants, while Italy, with 60 million people, has reported 33,072 deaths, or 547 per million inhabitants, according to AFP's tally.