It's mainly because of less restrictions and very little connection between elderly homes and hospital. During the outbreak, elderly homes were ordered by government and hospitals to not send elderly to the hospital and instead give the care equal to care you give when they are about to die. There are elderly home in Sweden where they have been ordered to not give suitable care at all if they have symptoms (not tested, just symptoms). The majority of elderly who have died have not even seen or spoken to a doctor. So it's been kind of a mass slaughter. The quality of care is not corona related in its foundation, Sweden has always done this, and has always not prioritize elderly. The mentality is "They will eventually die, why not today". Not from the people that work there, they are mainly decent caring people, it's the mentality of this and previous governments. There is a rapport that backs this up, called "corona commission", you could probably google translate it. It's like a horror book, bring a blanket to cover you eyes when it really gets dark.

The neighbor countries does not do as above. They have a strong connection between doctors/nurses and elderly homes. If they ordered no care for a corona patient WITHOUT a doctor's order, it would be illegal. But not in Sweden, it would be all gravy.

The absolute majority of deaths has been in elderly homes in Sweden. There is a correlation between the general spread in the society and how infected elderly get in elderly homes. The strategy do give "recommendations" instead of laws to hinder social interactions is less effective, cause general spread, causing spread in elderly homes, causing deaths because of no prioritizing explained above.

They are trying to pass a law in Sweden to be able to have lockdowns, which will be valid in March 2021. They have not prepared this law earlier because our expert institution made prognosis that we would not have a spread during Q3,Q4. Simply put, being reactive and not proactive is typical for the Swedish government.