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

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Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
The site of a planned nuclear fuel repository in Sweden. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

Find out what's going on in Sweden today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

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Man dead after shooting south of Stockholm

A man in his 20s has died after being found with gunshot wounds in Norsborg, south-west of the city of Stockholm. He was found by a passer-by in a car park shortly before midnight on Tuesday and was taken to hospital, but later died from his injuries.

The gunman was still at large in the early hours of Wednesday.

Swedish vocabulary: a passer-by – en förbipasserande

Swedish health chiefs hold Covid press conference

Sweden may lift most of its Covid restrictions starting February 9th, if the ongoing outbreak of the Omicron variant peaks by then and vaccinations continue apace, Health Minister Lena Hallengren told a press conference on Wednesday.

She was joined by Karin Tegmark Wisell, director-general of the Public Health Agency, at the press conference.

Tegmark Wisell said 270,000 new cases had been confirmed with PCR tests in the past seven days, but that the agency believes that the outbreak is currently so widespread that the true figure could be a least half a million people a week. Some 10 million people live in Sweden.

She said that the agency believes “the peak will be reached in the next few weeks”.

Swedish vocabulary: outbreak – utbrott

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Covid-19: Record-high case numbers

The region of Västra Götaland – where Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, is located – reported 44,791 positive cases of Covid-19 last week, the highest number in a single week since the pandemic began. Västra Götaland also reported the highest number of PCR tests taken in a single week during the pandemic, 130,554 tests.

Across the country, almost 140,000 new cases have been added to the total figures since last Thursday. New testing recommendations from the Public Health Agency mean that many regions now only offer free PCR testing to certain groups. This has led many individuals to take at-home antigen tests, which are not registered in official figures.

Swedish vocabulary: highest – högsta

Decision expected on Swedish nuclear waste site

On Thursday, the government is expected to approve an application from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company for building a new repository for spent nuclear fuel, reports Swedish news agency TT. The site would be located at the nuclear power plant at Forsmark on Sweden’s east coast, 130 kilometres north of Stockholm.

In total, 12,000 tonnes of nuclear waste would be deposited in the repository, 500 metres deep into 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock, in an intricate system of 66 kilometres of tunnels, with space for more than 6,000 copper canisters of spent nuclear fuel.

Swedish vocabulary: nuclear fuel – kärnbränsle

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