Day 12: Sweden and England COVID

Walpurgis Night is a traditional celebration held which results in the gathering of large amounts of people. In the town of Lund, Sweden up to 30,000 residents could potentially gather to celebrate this festival. However with social distancing remaining an imperative due to the Coronavirus pandemic the Lund council is trying to discourage this social behaviour and halt the spread of the virus within their town. The council’s decision to cover the central park of Lund in one metric tonne of chicken manure is somewhat controversial, however promises to achieve crowd dispersal (due to the smell) while also fertilising the lawns of the park. It is a smart initiative which involves natural resources. Not to say it should be adopted by every city as it is purely circumstantial.

Sweden and England have both had very different responses to the coronavirus outbreak. Swedens controversial approach did not involve the closure of schools, shops, offices or the banning of social meet-ups. Their public health administration and minister have taken extremely relaxed measures to combat the virus, compared to their neighbouring countries and England. England has enforced strict social distancing regulations, closed schools and also been through a lengthy lockdown. Sweden relies on the cooperation of the population to voluntarily take precautions and socialise at their own risk. Their public health administration announcing that if cases continued to increase they would implement further measures. While this certainly won’t work in other western countries, it is hard to say whether their approach has been a success or failure.