While much of Europe has remained in coronavirus lockdown, Sweden has bucked the global trend by imposing minimum restriction on public activities in order to generate herd immunity to take on the pandemic.
Though for the past month, outdoor activities have not been unbridled — people having been advised to avoid non-essential travel — restaurants, bars, cafes and nightclubs have remained open, albeit with limiting gatherings of over 50 people. Educational institutions, including school for under 16-year-olds, have remained open.
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist has claimed that “herd immunity” could be reached in its capital Stockholm in a few weeks.
The strategy — aimed at allowing some exposure to the virus in order to build immunity among the general population while protecting high-risk groups like the elderly — has been controversial. Some health experts argued it is a risky move. Sweden has seen 16,755 Covid-19 cases and 2,021 deaths so far.
Herd immunity is also called community immunity and herd or group protection. It occurs when a 60 per cent of the community is deemed immune to a disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness), making the spread of this disease from person to person unlikely. This can happen when many people contract the disease and in time build up an immune response to it (natural immunity). It may also occur many people are vaccinated against the disease to achieve immunity.