Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Did the earth move for you?

An earthquake measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale shook the area between Lövånger and Bureå in north-eastern Swedish region Västerbotten, reports public broadcaster SVT.

But residents in the area are used to minor earthquakes like this (and this was fairly minor even by Swedish standards) – which may make it feel as if a large truck just drove past, or could make lamps in the ceiling swing back and forth. The area is Sweden’s earthquake hotspot and a quake of this magnitude happens almost once a year.

Swedish vocabulary: earthquake – jordbävning

Fewer people called in sick in Sweden in 2021

A large annual survey that quizzed around 9,700 people about their health in relation to work found that fewer people than normal called in sick in the past year. A total of 53 percent who worked from home due to the pandemic did not claim a single sick day; the corresponding figure among those who had to be physically present was 31 percent.

Overall, 39 percent of all employees had zero days of sick leave – that figure has not been that high in at least ten years, according to the survey, the Job Health Index.

Part of the reason may be that fewer people caught seasonal viruses due to limited social contacts during the pandemic, or that people who worked from home kept working even when they felt slightly under the weather and would otherwise have called in sick.

Swedish vocabulary: health – hälsa

Sweden celebrates 100 years of women’s suffrage

Sweden is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first parliamentary election in which women were allowed to vote, following a decision in 1919. On September 10th, 1921, the election got under way in the southern Skåne region, and on September 16th, polls opened in Gothenburg in Stockholm. The historic election was over on September 18th (the Social Democrats, led by Hjalmar Branting, won with 36.2 percent of the vote).

This also led to more groups which had previously been overlooked being given the right to vote. In 1922, it was extended to men who had not done their military service.

Swedish vocabulary: suffrage – rösträtt

Swedish opposition leader pledges to hit gang criminals with terror laws

The leader of Sweden's centre-right opposition has called for the country to use its far-reaching terror legislation against gang criminals. In his traditional party leader’s “summer speech”, Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson said that gang criminals “should be met with the fall force of Swedish terror legislation” and that people who are members of a criminal gang but not Swedish citizens should be deported.

After the speech, the party’s justice spokesperson Johan Forssell presented new proposals for extending terror legislation so that the “law on secret coercise measures” or Lagen om hemliga tvångsåtgärder, which empowers police to listen in to phone calls and other communications, be extended to cover gang criminals.

Swedish vocabulary: summer speech – sommartal

Forty people got vaccinated at football match in southern Sweden

Regional health authorities in Skåne, southern Sweden, opened a pop-up vaccination centre at a football match between Malmö FF and IFK Norrköping on Saturday, to encourage more people to get their Covid-19 jab. It was the first time they offered Covid-19 vaccinations at a large event, and the aim was to increase the vaccination rate among young men – a group that's currently underrepresented in the statistics.

A total of 40 people got their Covid-19 jab at the pop-up vaccination clinic, reported SVT.

Swedish vocabulary: football match – fotbollsmatch