Sweden's coronavirus rules are voluntary. One city hopes chicken manure will encourage compliance.

(Image credit: Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

published 30 April 2020

Scandinavia is celebrating Walpurgis Night on Thursday, and the annual festival of spring draws up to 30,000 people in Lund, home to one of Sweden's largest universities. Lund, like many cities and towns in Sweden, is urging people to skip the traditional crowded bonfires and parties this year because of the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Unlike most other countries, however, Sweden's COVID-19 mitigation rules are mostly voluntary, and Lund can't ban people from amassing in its central park for "spontaneous" Walpurgis Night festivities, The Guardian reports. So they are dumping a metric ton of chicken manure in the park. It's a win-win, Guvtav Lundblad, a member of the local council, told Sweden's Sydsvenskan newspaper. "We get the opportunity to fertilize the lawns, and at the same time it will stink and so it may not be so nice to sit and drink beer in the park."

Sweden's experiment in voluntary social distancing gets mixed reviews. The country has banned planned gatherings of 50 or more and closed museums, but preschools and grade schools, bars, restaurants, hair salons, gyms, and even some movie theaters were kept open. Almost nobody wears masks, The New York Times reports, and "Sweden's death rate of 22 per 100,000 people is the same as that of Ireland, which has earned accolades for its handling of the pandemic, and far better than in Britain or France." Compared with its Nordic neighbors, however, Sweden is a disaster.

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Sweden has reported more than 20,300 COVID-19 cases and 2,462 deaths, in a country of 10.3 million. And while it has taken a lighter touch than its neighbors and peers, the decisions have been dictated by Sweden's top public health officials, not politicians. As Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin told BBC News, Sweden's strategy is deliberate, culturally appropriate, and set up for the long haul. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.