The government recently proposed raising the 50-person limit on public events, if the audience members have designated seats and can keep a distance from each other.

Sweden's Public Health Agency responded to the proposals suggesting a 500-person limit for seated events and a minimum one-metre distance between attendees – lower than the two-metre distance suggested by the government.

But police have said it could be problematic to change the rules for some events and not others.

In their response to the proposals, police said that dance performances at restaurants would be permitted, but not races in a forest, which could be confusing and counter-productive given that the risk of infection is lower outdoors.

The proposals would also mean that demonstrations would be subject to stricter regulations than concerts and shows.

These discrepancies could make it complicated to enforce the proposed changes to legislation, the police said. 

And they added that it would be legally difficult to set conditions for organisers on how attendees should keep their distance (for example, how entry to venues should be managed, or how seats should be marked) which could make it hard to implement this in practice. 

Instead, the police suggested a gradual increase in the maximum number of participants, which would apply to all events.