Sweden's centre-left, minority government failed in several aspects of its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Swedish parliament's constitutional committee.

The government was slow to put in place a testing and tracing system, failed to protect the elderly and there was a lack of clear lines of responsibility between national and local authorities, the committee said.

"It is ... clear that Sweden was not sufficiently prepared before (the pandemic) and we can learn from many of the underlying failures that have been identified," Hans Ekstrom, deputy chairman of the committee and a Social Democrat lawmaker, told a hearing.

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