STOCKHOLM - Several elderly homes in Sweden are reporting COVID-19 cases amid a general rise in infection rate, three months after all municipal elderly care facilities were declared coronavirus-free, Swedish media reported on Wednesday.

Elderly homes in several regions are affected and in Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, a total of 13 elderly home residents in five different city districts have been confirmed sick with the new coronavirus recently.

Irene Nilsson Carlsson, a public health adviser at the National Board of Health and Welfare, told Radio Sweden: "The latest report from the Public Health Agency shows that the infection rate is increasing at elderly care homes and that is of course worrying."

In spring, after elderly care homes across the country were hit hard by the pandemic, the National Board of Health and Welfare introduced a number of rules for staff members to ensure that the virus would be kept at bay.

Sweden has registered a total of 137,730 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with nearly 6,000 deaths.