Sweden should have adopted tougher early measures and the government assumed clearer leadership as Covid-19 hit, though the mostly voluntary no-lockdown strategy was broadly correct, a commission reviewing the pandemic response said.

Sweden polarised opinion at home and abroad with its handling of the pandemic, opting against the lockdowns implemented by many countries and adopting a largely voluntary approach of promoting social distancing and good hygiene, according to Reuters.

“The government should have assumed leadership of all aspects of crisis management from the outset,” the commission said in the report, adding that the government had too one-sided a dependence on assessments made by the Public Health Agency.