Photos of crowded cafés and parks show what life is like in Sweden, one of the only European countries not under strict lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak

Over the past several weeks, life in Sweden has maintained some semblance of normality while most other European countries remain under lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: Associated Press, Business Insider, Wired

The country has closed high schools and universities, banned public gatherings of 50 or more people, restricted nursing home visitations, and urged at-risk people to self-isolate at home, but Swedes are otherwise free to go about their routines while observing social distancing.

Source: Business Insider

"The only way to manage this crisis is to face it as a society, with everyone taking responsibility for themselves, for each other and for our country," the prime minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, said in an address to the nation on March 22.

Source: Government Offices of Sweden

Parks remain open to residents looking to enjoy the spring weather.

Source: Business Insider

Bars, cafés, and restaurants serve seated customers.

Source: Business Insider

And most shops and malls remain open.

Source: Business Insider

Even hair salons, whose services rely on close physical contact, are accepting customers.

Source: Business Insider

The Swedish Health Agency has also kept kindergarten and primary schools open. According to a report by the World Health Organization released in February, children under the age of 18 represented only 2.4% of reported coronavirus cases in Wuhan, China.

Source: World Health Organization, Reuters

While experts have since posited that mild symptoms could be causing infected children to pass under the radar, the Swedish Health Agency believes that young children are not transmitting the disease at a high rate and that closing schools could keep much-needed healthcare workers home.

Source: Washington Post, CNBC, Reuters

Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist and head of the Swedish Health Agency, calls his country's coronavirus response "low-scale" and predicts that it will be "much more sustainable" over time than that of other European countries.

Source: Associated Press

Compared to the responses of neighboring countries, Sweden's approach to the coronavirus outbreak is lax. Norway, Denmark, and Finland all closed down schools, restaurants, and bars last month, though Norway and Denmark are beginning to ease restrictions.

Source: Business Insider, Government of Norway, Danish Police, Reuters

Following the news that coronavirus-related deaths in Sweden surpassed 1,000 on April 14 — making the country's fatality rate 10 times as high as Finland's, four times as high as Norway's, and twice as high as Denmark's, Bloomberg calculated — 22 Swedish academics penned a letter to a Stockholm newspaper calling upon the government to radically change its approach.

Source: Bloomberg

The World Health Organization has also urged Sweden to take stricter actions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Source: CNN

Despite criticism, Tegnell believes an increase in infections in the short term will avoid the possibility of a wave of new infections that could happen if the country imposed, then lifted, strict lockdown measures, he told the Associated Press.

Source: Associated Press

In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz published last week, Tegnell cited Swedish culture and traditions as the guiding principle behind Sweden's coronavirus response.

Source: Hareetz

"We prefer voluntary measures, and there is a high level of trust here between the population and the authorities, so we are able to avoid coercive restrictions," he said.

Source: Hareetz

Will the strategy work for Sweden? Only time will tell, according to Lars Ostergaard, chief consultant and professor at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. "There is no right or wrong way," he told the Associated Press. "No one has walked this path before, and only the aftermath will show who made the best decision."

Source: Associated Press