Sweden took a different approach to fighting the Coronavirus than most other Western nations and the results are surprising many. They decided not to implement a full lockdown.

They allowed non-essential businesses, like restaurants and gyms and even schools to stay open. Shockingly, people were allowed to leave their homes compared to some US states where you can get fined if you do.

Instead of quarantining everyone, Sweden chose to quarantine the ones most vulnerable like the elderly and the sick. They did stop entertainment and sporting events and encouraged people to behave responsibly, but allowed social gatherings.

As a result a herd mentality has kicked in and many Swedes have caught COVID-19, recovered and developed an immunity for the disease. According to the Daily Mail, Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Dr. Anders Tegnell, told reporters:

“We are starting to see so many immune people in the population in Stockholm that it is starting to have an effect on the spread of the infection.”

Since the virus has fewer people to infect, the number of new cases of COVID-19 is already starting to fall in Stockholm, Sweden’s largest city.

John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times recently tweeted:

Stockholm:
• Remember Sweden has not locked down like most places. Social gatherings still common.
• But data show steady deceleration in new hospitalisations
• Daily hospital beds occupied now unchanged vs last week, and on course for net week-on-week reduction very soon pic.twitter.com/pomIvTdSuu

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) April 20, 2020

And they managed to do it without destroying their economy.

According to reports, Sweden has 14,777 confirmed cases and with 1,580 deaths, this is death rate of nearly 11%, but this is just based on the number of people who were sick enough to require medical attention.

Sweden has a population of 10 million people and once they start testing its full population for COVID-19 antibodies, that percentage will obviously fall dramatically.

READ: Sweden official: Coronavirus strategy of keeping country open seems to be working