STOCKHOLM- Sweden, whose soft-touch virus approach has placed it in the global spotlight, recorded new 15,779 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as a resurgent pandemic stretched testing to the limit in many hard-hit and densely populated regions.

The increase since the Health Agency's previous update on Friday compared with a 10,177 case jump for the corresponding period last week. Cases in Sweden, which does not publish data over the weekend or Mondays, have repeatedly hit daily records over the last two weeks.

"We can see that the increase is evident in all age groups," Health Agency official Sara Byfors told a news conference.

"Like the other curves, deaths are also heading higher, though not as steeply yet."

Sweden also tightened recommendations for three more regions on Tuesday, meaning inhabitants in 13 out of 21 regions now are advised to work from home, avoid public transport and limit social interaction outside the family as much as possible.

Several regions are struggling to keep up with demand for testing even as it hit a record last week, forcing authorities in the biggest cities and hard-hit areas such as Ostergotland to restrict bookings amid a scramble to raise capacity.

"We are in a period where we have difficulty getting supplies of, above all, chemical reagents that we need to analyse the tests," Rickard Lundin, a member of the Ostergotland healthcare task force, said.

"We have received signals from our suppliers that it is difficult to come by this material nationally right now."

Sweden registered 35 new deaths on Tuesday, taking the total to 6,057 during the pandemic. Sweden's death rate per capita is several times higher than Nordic neighbours but lower than some larger European countries, such as Spain and Britain.

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