Of all essential workers in Sweden in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals and immigrants were at highest risk for infection, hospitalization, and admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), according to a study late last week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

University of Gothenburg researchers analyzed the occupational data of 326,052 essential workers from 2018 and 2019 who lived in Sweden as of Jan 1, 2020, and were included in a nationwide COVID-19 database from Jan 1, 2020, to Feb 28, 2021. Average worker age was 43 years, half were women, 18% were foreign-born, and 28% worked in essential occupations.

The investigators compared the risk of infection, hospital admission, and ICU admission among occupational groups and in four groups of Swedish- or foreign-born workers, adjusting for socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors and underlying illnesses. The study was part of a larger observational study involving multiple national COVID-19 registries.

In stark contrast to most Western countries, Sweden went with a "business-as-usual" approach to the pandemic, avoiding lockdowns and face-covering mandates and conducting school in person, a move that backfired, with a much higher COVID-19 death rate than its Nordic neighbors experienced.

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