The only European countries that have not passed their coronavirus peak are Sweden and Poland, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and other European countries’ lockdown measures led to an 80 per cent decline in the virus’s 14-day incidence since the peak on April 9.
But the 14-day incidence ‘was at the highest level yet observed’ in Poland and Sweden, said the ECDC.
To date Sweden has 49, 684 confirmed cases
To date Sweden has 4,854 deaths
Of the countries that are monitored by the ECDC 28 of them, including Poland, have a current 14-day incidence rate below 20 cases per 100,000 population, Euro News reported.
The UK and Portugal have 14-day incidence rates between 20 and 100 per 100,000 population and Sweden is the only country which has a rate above 100 cases per 100,000 people.
‘Increases in testing in Sweden may partly explain this increase,’ the ECDC said in its most recent rapid risk assessment.
Almost two thirds of Sweden’s infections were reported after April 23 making up six per cent of the total cases reported in the 31 countries since then.
Only Europe’s worst affected countries, the UK, Italy, Spain and France, had higher cases.
Sweden did not impose a strict lockdown like the rest of Europe and instead depended on its citizens’ voluntary social distancing.
Pictured: People socialising and not socially distancing durng the pandemic in Stockholm on April 26
Pictured: A busy street in Stockholm during rush hour on May 29 amid the coronavirus pandemic
Although the decision was considered controversial by most of Europe the ECDC noted that Google mobility data showed a reduction in movement in Stockholm County.
During the week of April 6 there were 49 per cent fewer people using public transport, 48 per cent fewer people working at their workplaces and 30 per cent less people going to retail and leisure spaces.
After infection clusters were reported in coal mines Poland also saw a rapid acceleration in its number of cases.
Poland reported over 1,150 coronavirus cases last weekend alone with at least half of them being coal mine workers.
Pictured: Medical experts testing miners at the BolesLaw Smialy coal mine in Laziska Gorne in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland on June, 11
Despite this the country announced on Wednesday that it would reopen its borders to EU countries on June 13.
The Prime Minister’s office said in a statement that only random checks will be conducted ‘exactly as it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Travellers will regain the right to free entry, exit and transit through the territory of Poland.
‘They will not be quarantined.’
Poland started to ease the country’s lockdown in mid-May and most businesses, including restaurants and bars, are now open.
To date, Poland has 28,577 confirmed cases with 1,222 deaths surpassed by Sweden’s 49,684 confirmed cases and 4,854 deaths.
Comparatively the UK, which has some of the highest infection and death rates in the world, has 294,401 confirmed cases and 41,566 deaths, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.