A lockdown might not have saved lives in Sweden because half its coronavirus deaths are in care homes where visits are already banned, the country‘s top disease expert said today.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said it was ‚hard to understand‘ how a full-scale lockdown would have stopped the virus spreading into nursing homes.

While Sweden has avoided introducing a lockdown, it has banned visitors from care homes in one of its few restrictive measures, with schools, bars, shops and restaurants still open.