Sweden ups risk of wide coronavirus outbreak in Sweden to 'moderate'

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Public Health Agency on Monday raised its assessment of the risk of a widespread outbreak of coronavirus in Sweden to "moderate" from "low", the head of the agency told a news conference.

The agency also said it now sees the risk of imported cases and of Swedish citizens being infected abroad as "very high", up from the previous assessment of "high".

"In particular the situation in Italy means that we now expect that Swedish citizens will be infected, and also come to Sweden with the infection," agency head Johan Carlson said.

Sweden has 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus but no fatalities.

(Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom; editing by Simon Johnson)