The Swedish government was on Thursday accused by the parliamentary constitutional committee of failing in several aspects of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the committee, the centre-left minority administration was not quick enough to implement a testing and tracing system, failed to protect the elderly and did not distinguish clearly lines of responsibility between national and local authorities.

"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.

The committee said the government should have been faster in constituting a framework for testing and tracing and crafting a law granting it greater authority to handle the crisis, in addition to being quicker to isolate care homes for the elderly.

"The government's response was not sufficient," committee chairperson Karin Enstrom, of the opposition Moderate Party, said.

The committee, however, did not discuss the controversial decision not to impose any lockdown.

Sweden has been an exception the fight against the coronavirus pandemic by deciding against implementing lockdowns and largely using non-coercive measures. The country's death toll has been higher than those among its Nordic neighbours, but lower than in most European countries that imposed the measure.

The government has already conceded that it did not do enough to protect elderly residents of care homes.

Meanwhile, Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren admitted that while some issues might have been handled better, the committee had not pointed out serious constitutional criticism.

"But there are descriptions of things that could have been handled differently, and where one could have found clarity faster," she told news agency TT.

According to figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Sweden has reported 1,068,473 confirmed cases and 14,451 deaths.

(With input from Reuters)