More than 100 countries around the world have implemented either a full or partial lockdown to help fight the spread of coronavirus. **Sweden is not one of those countries.**
Sweden's different approach
The Swedish authorities have opted for more relaxed measures that aim to isolate confirmed cases as much as possible, while keeping schools for younger children, restaurants and most shops and businesses open. That policy is very different to neighboring Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland & Norway, all of which imposed some form of lockdown more than 3 weeks ago.
In fairness, life is still far from normal in Sweden. There are still social distancing guidelines and traffic data from Citymapper suggests that planned trips in Stockholm have fallen 70%, with most Swedes working from home if they can.
Unfortunately, the last week seems to suggest that those measures might not be enough. Sweden has now recorded almost 800 deaths from coronavirus, twice as many as its Scandinavian neighbors combined.
Sweden's strategy to save its economy some pain in the long run was a bold one, but if deaths in the country keep rising at this rate it probably hasn't worked.
