The broad purpose of the project is to answer two research questions:

1. What are the consequences of COVID-19—as well as the interventions and reforms implemented to stop the spread of the disease—on public health, in terms of mortality and morbidity, but also psychological and physiological well-being more broadly?

2. What are the consequences of the pandemic—as well as the interventions and reforms implemented to stop the spread of the disease—for central social and economic outcomes, like jobs, income and inequality?

The research project was started by Professor Torsten Persson in collaboration with the Swedish Corona Commission. Professor Persson, who was also a member of the commission, realized that it would be crucial for the commission to support new research in order to properly fulfill its task.

During its working period, which ended with the publication of a final report in February 2022, the Corona Commission supported the research in SWECOV, chiefly by financing data purchases from different registers. In early 2022, the board of Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Riksbank Tercentenary Foundation) took a decision to support the continuation of SWECOV—as a major data source and network for research about the pandemic and its consequences—with a generous four-year grant.

Work in SWECOV is conducted in separate studies, or subprojects, where researchers from different disciplines try two answer the main research questions from various perspectives. At the moment of writing, more than 40 researchers work across more than 20 studies answering questions ranging from how the pandemic affected inequality to how the economic shock propagated through the Swedish economy.