(Newswire.net— May 1, 2020) — The Swedish city of Lund spread chicken manure in the city park in an attempt to discourage people from gathering for the Walpurgis Night celebration, Russia Today reports.
Tens of thousands of people usually gather in this city to celebrate Walpurgis Night, which is celebrated throughout Northern Europe.
In an effort to ensure social distancing during the festival, city officials decided to dissuade people from eventual gatherings that could spread the virus.
No quarantine has been introduced in Sweden, and the data shows that most people adhere to social distancing guidelines on their own initiative.
“Lund could very well become an epicenter for the spread of the coronavirus on the last night in April, I think it was a good initiative,” Gustav Lundblad, from the local council’s environment committee, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
The city’s mayor Philip Sandberg said that the popular festival could gather some 30,000 people in the city park.
“Most students in Lund and other parts of Sweden respect the recommendations … although even a small number of people still going to the park can become a big risk,” Sandberg said.
“We have the opportunity to fertilize the lawns and at the same time it will stink so it may not be comfortable sitting and drinking beer,” Sandberg explains defending the decision to scatter one ton of chicken manure in the park.
Sweden is one of the rare countries that didn’t introduce isolation methods to fight the coronavirus COVID-19. Their figures showed that 11% of those tested for the virus are infected. The tests have a sensitivity of 70-80 percent, but they can’t show false-positive results. Statistically, the tests could react negatively on some 20% of people who are infected with COVID-19 in who the virus has not yet become active.
Turning away from Italy’s total quarantine model, Sweden’s “relaxed” approach has failed as the country counts more than 15,300 people officially diagnosed with COVID-19, with 1,765 deaths. Officials believe the number of infected is much higher, however, the simulation curve shows that Sweden is at its peak with the number of infected people, and that the curve has a tendency of falling. The model predicts that Sweden will be 97% COVID-19 free from June 17, and 100% coronavirus free in October of 2020.
The same prediction model shows that the pandemic in the world will end from May to September, depending on the country, but the virus should disappear until the end of the year. In the U.S. the model predicts the country to be 97% COVID-19 free around May 18, and 100% in September 2020.