counties had reported a 50% drop in public transport usage, including kalmar länstrafik in kalmar county, skånetrafiken in skåne county, stockholm public transit in stockholm county, and västtrafik in västra götaland county. in stockholm, the streets grew increasingly emptier, with a 30% drop in the number of cars, and 70% fewer pedestrians. in mid-may, and on the request of the public health agency, the swedish transport agency temporarily suspended the regulations that allowed for passenger transport on lorries or trailers pulled by tractors, trucks or engineering vehicles at graduations and carnivals. the new rules were to be in place between 15 may and 31 december. these social distancing recommendations have been effective in part because swedes tend to have a "disposition to social distancing anyway." social distancing rules were tightened in december 2021 in response to an increase in cases driven by the sars-cov-2 omicron variant. ban on gatherings the same day as the first swedish death from covid-19, 11 march, the swedish government passed a new law at the request of the public health agency, limiting freedom of assembly by banning all public gatherings and events with more than 500 participants, with threat of fines or imprisonment for organisers. public gatherings and events include arts and entertainment events including theatre, cinema and concerts, religious meetings, demonstrations, lectures, competitive sports, amusement parks, fairs and markets. they do not include gatherings in schools, workplaces, public transport, grocery stores or shopping malls, health clubs or other private events. the ban would apply until further notice. according to the health agency, the reasoning behind drawing the line at 500 was to limit long-distance travel within the nation's borders, as bigger events are more likely to attract visitors from all over the country. although freedom of assembly is protected by the swedish constitution in the fundamental law on freedom of expression, the constitution allows for a government to restrict the freedom, if needed to limit the spread of an epidemic. on 27 march the government announced that the ban on public gatherings would be lowered to include all public gatherings of more than 50 people, to further decrease the spread of the infection, again at the request of the public health agency. the agency also recommended that plans for events and gatherings of fewer than 50 people should be preceded by a risk assessment and, if necessary, followed by mitigation measures. additionally, they recommended that digital meetings should be considered. the ban on large public gatherings had no end-date, and as of late april, the health agency was reported as having no plans for when the ban should be lifted. starting from 24 november 2020 public events and gatherings were limited to up to eight persons. the participant limits were lifted successively in the summer of 2021, and fully removed on 29 september. with the arrival of the omicron voc, indoors public gatherings and events of over 500 people were required to implement vaccine passports from 23 december 2021, and the limit was later reduced to 50 participants. on 9 february 2022 all bans on gatherings and events (as well as other distancing regulations) were abolished, and from 1 april 2022 covid-19 was no longer classified as dangerous to the general public or society at large (although reporting requirements stayed in place). travel on 18 march, the health agency recommended that everyone should avoid travelling within the country. this came after signs of ongoing community transmission in parts of the country, due to concern that a rapid spread over the country would make redistribution of healthcare resources more difficult. they also called for the public to reconsider any planned holidays during the upcoming easter weekend. the calls to avoid travelling and social interactions during the easter weekend were repeated several times by agency and government officials, among them prime minister stefan löfvén and king, carl xvi gustaf. telia, a swedish multinational mobile network operator, did an analysis of mobile network data during the week of easter, and found that most swedes had followed the agency's recommendations to avoid unnecessary travels during the easter holidays. overall, travel from the stockholm region had decreased by 80–90%, and the number of citizens of stockholm travelling to popular holiday destinations like gotland and the ski resorts in åre had fallen with more than 90%. travel between other regions in sweden had fallen as well. ferry-line operator destination gotland, who previously had called on their customers to rethink their planned trips for easter, reported that 85% of all bookings had been rescheduled. the restrictions on domestic travel were somewhat softened on 13 may, allowing for travels equalling one to two hours from home by car would be allowed under some circumstances to which löfvén referred to as ‘common sense’, such as not risking to burden healthcare in other regions, keeping contact with others low and not travelling to visit new social contacts, the elderly or those at risk of severe disease. on 4 june, the government announced that the restrictions on domestic travel were to be lifted on 13 june, allowing everyone to freely travel in the country if they were without symptoms and rules on social distancing were followed. however, they cautioned that new restrictions could be introduced if the situation were to worsen, and that the county administrative boards of sweden were tasked to monitor the situation. in a press conference on 25 january 2021, foreign minister ann linde extended the advisory of the government against all non-essential international travel until 15 april 2021. communication and information state epidemiologist anders tegnell during a press conference outside the karolinska institute in stockholm, sweden, in 2020beginning in march, press conferences were held daily at 14:00 local time, with representatives from the three government agencies responsible for coordinating sweden's response to the pandemic; the public health agency, usually represented by state epidemiologist tegnell or deputy state epidemiologist anders wallensten, the national board of health and welfare and the swedish civil contingencies agency. according to the latter, close to one million people followed each press conference on the tv or the radio. the ratings excluded other types of media.for official information on the disease and the situation in sweden, the authorities referred the public to the website krisinformation.se, which compiles official emergency information from swedish authorities. the website is operated by the civil contingencies agency, as the agency responsible for emergency information to the public during emergencies. the agency reported a big increase in the number of people visiting the website during the beginning of the pandemic, with 4.5 million views between january and april 2020, compared to 200,000 during the same period in 2019. in march, the civil contingencies agency received 75 million sek (€7.4 million) from the government for public service announcements to inform the public about the virus, and how to reduce the spread of the disease to slow down the spread of the virus. legislation on 16 april 2020, the riksdag passed a bill on a temporary amendment on the swedish law on infectious diseases (2004:168). the new law granted the swedish government more authority, by allowing it to make decisions without a preceding vote in the swedish parliament, the riksdag. the purpose of the law was to enable the government to make speedy decisions on measures against an ongoing pandemic. the bill had initially been criticised by the parties in opposition and the council on legislation for being too vague, but was accepted by the riksdag following a revision defining the measures, and an amendment stating that all measures needed to be reviewed by the parliament, which came after negotiations between the government and the opposition. thus, the riksdag would be able to revoke any imposed measures after they had come into effect. the law would only apply for measures linked to the ongoing pandemic, and it would apply for a limited time only. the law came into effect on 18 april 2020, and would last until 20 june 2020. the bill would allow the government to quickly and independently impose measures such as restrictions on transport and closures of bus station and train stations, ferries and ports, businesses such as restaurants, health clubs or malls, libraries and museums, or schools. the law would also allow the government to make decisions on redistribution of medicine and other healthcare equipment, such as personal protective equipment between different healthcare providers, including privately owned companies. the new law would not allow for the government to impose measures to that of would restrict people's ability to go outside, similar to the curfews in other countries, as it would limit people's constitutional right to free movement. the karensdag, the unpaid first day of sick leave, was temporarily discontinued on 11 march 2020 in an effort to encourage people to stay home if they were experiencing symptoms consistent with covid-19. on 13 march 2020, the government decided to temporarily abolish the demand of a doctor's certificate for 14 days for people staying home from work due to illness (i.e. sick pay period). previously a doctor's certificate was needed after seven days. on 24 march 2020, the government introduced new restrictions to bars and restaurants requiring all service to be table service only. restaurants were also recommended increase the space between the tables. venues that do not adhere to the new restrictions could be shut down. several bars and restaurants were later ordered to close by municipal health inspectors. initially, the infectious disease control medical officers had the responsibility and mandate to close down establishments not adhering to the restrictions through the swedish law on communicable diseases, while the municipalities had been given the responsibility for the supervision. this changed when a new temporary legislation came into effect on 1 july 2020, making them the sole regulatory body in the same way as in the swedish alcohol act and the swedish food act. the law were to stay in effect until the end of the year. beginning on 1 april 2020, all private visits to nursing homes was outlawed by the government. many municipalities had already forbidden such visits. the national ban was however general, and those in charge of the facilities would be able to make exceptions under special circumstances, provided that the risk of spread of the virus was low. following reports of people hoarding medication and concerns of drug shortages, the medical products agency requested for the swedish government to impose restrictions on purchases. this resulted in a new regulation limiting the amount of drugs purchased at the same occasion to three months worth of consumption, down from a previous limit of one year. the new regulations came to effect on 1 april 2020 and would be in place until further notice, and included to both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. advice against travel abroad the government has issued progressively stricter advisories against travel. beginning on 17 february 2020, the swedish ministry of foreign affairs advised against all trips to hubei, china, as well as non-essential travel to the rest of china apart from hong kong and macao. on 2 march 2020 the ministry for foreign affairs advised against trips to iran, due to the uncontrolled spread of the covid-19 in the country. the swedish transport agency also revoked iran air's permit for iranian flights to land in sweden from the same date. according to the foreign ministry, there were several thousand swedish citizens in iran at the time of the ban, many of them with difficulties getting back to sweden. on 6 march 2020, the ministry for foreign affairs advised against all non-necessary trips to northern italy, specifically the regions of piemonte, liguria, lombardia, emilia-romagna, trentino-südtirol, valle d'aosta, veneto, friuli venezia giulia, marche and toscana. turin, milan, venice, verona, trieste and florence are large cities in these regions. the public health agency of sweden, who initiated the recommendation for the ministry for foreign affairs, stated that the decision was based solely on the strain of the italian health care system. on similar grounds, the foreign affairs ministry also advised against all non-necessary travel to the city of daegu and the province of gyeongbuk in south korea. the advice regarding travel to italy was extended 10 march 2020 to include all of its regions. finally, all international travel was discouraged on 14 march 2020. the advice was to be