Sweden's coronavirus hospitalisations are growing at a concerning rate.
The European Centre of Disease Control says the number of people needing treatment in hospital because of complications with Covid-19 are doubling every eight days.
Figures state there are 1,004 people currently in intensive care, according to the Guardian, which is 60 per cent higher than last week's total of 627.
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The Daily Mail says Sweden's hospitalisation rate is faster than Austria and Slovakia, with hospital admissions doubling every nine days, while Italy says hospitalisations are increasing two-fold every 10 days.
Sweden's director of health and medical care services for Stockholm, Björn Eriksson, told the state broadcaster SV: "We consider the situation extremely serious. We can expect noticeably more people needing hospital care over the coming weeks."
The European country took a novel approach to the pandemic and instead of locking residents down, they allowed people to roam freely and didn't mandate face mask wearing. Sweden largely avoided seeing massive spikes in infections like in France, Spain and the UK and it was thought the country would avoid a second wave because of herd immunity.
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However, a second wave has well and truly arrived and it's sparking concern.
Sweden's seven-day average of new infections has gone above 4,000, which is in stark contrast to when the country was less than 500 just last month.
The country's chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has suggested the trend of huge numbers of positive test results will 'certainly increase'.
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Prime minister Stefan Löfven addressed the nation earlier this week, saying: "It is November. This is the darkest month of the year and the darkness will be with us for a while now, and unfortunately it also seems like we are moving towards darker times when it comes to the spread of infection in parts of the world, in Europe and here in Sweden.
"All indications are now going in the wrong direction.
"The infection is spreading fast, and in the past week the number of people being treated for Covid-19 in intensive care has more than doubled. So far, the healthcare sector is managing the pressure, but staff in the sector have been overworked since spring, and now they risk standing on the front line for a long time to come."
"We are ahead of a situation that risks becoming completely dark. We risk more people getting sick, more people dying, more overworked people in the healthcare sector, more postponed operations. We are risking, in Sweden, the situation we had in spring."
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Sweden has proposed to ban the sale of alcohol after 10pm in a bid to reduce people getting too close to each other however no other social distancing rules have been imposed. Bars and other venues would also have to close at 10:30pm.
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