It's the country that was heavily criticised for deciding to do things differently when it came to coronavirus – to ignore lockdown and keep bars and schools open.
And it paid a price with at least 5700 deaths, putting it in the top 10 of nations in terms of coronavirus deaths per million.
But, as time goes on, Sweden's controversial approach to tackling Covid-19 is winning over some sceptics.
The Swedish economy has shrunk less than other nations and cases have fallen dramatically, deaths have essentially dried up and no significant second wave has occurred. In fact, right now, Sweden looks better than Australia.



However, some virus watchers have warned that Sweden's success could be a mirage, that a Scandinavian trait could be behind the low current numbers and the real test could come in as little as one month's time.
Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases expert at the Australian National University, told news.com.au he doubts Sweden's approach – or that of New Zealand – is perfect. Rather, New South Wales could end up being the exemplar as to how to get a grip on the bucking bronco of Covid-19.
"In my view, neither the New Zealand nor the Swedish approach is the way to go," he said.
"The trouble with Sweden is it's had a lot of deaths; the trouble with New Zealand is elimination is difficult to achieve.
"What's happening in NSW with contact tracing and stopping the spread is more like what we will have to do for the next few years."
What is the Swedish Approach?
When the world was locking down, Sweden, conspicuously, did not.
Sweden's chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell created and drove a unique national Covid-19 strategy.
Pubs, most schools and other workplaces remained open. When people in Sydney were banned from supping a beer in a bar, residents of Stockholm were enjoying sundowners with their mates.
That's not to say there were no restrictions on the nation's 10 million citizens. People were barred from going to aged-care homes, joining large gatherings and Swedes were encouraged to social distance – which it seems they did almost as much as everyone else.
"As a society, we are more into nudging: continuously reminding people to use measures, improving measures where we see day by day the that they need to be adjusted," Tegnell told the journal Nature in May.
Swedish cases and deaths down
Initially, the plan seemed to backfire. At one point Sweden had more deaths per population than any other country.
So far, Sweden has suffered around 5800 deaths – far smaller than the US' 167,000 deaths or the UK's almost 50,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus resource centre
But compared to its Scandinavian neighbours, Sweden's experience is grim. It has recorded 10 times the deaths of Denmark and 20 times that of Norway, both of which locked down harder.
Yet, since a peak of 115 deaths a day in early April, Sweden's numbers have tracked consistently downwards.
It now has a seven-day average of 226 cases, lower than Victoria. Deaths are about one per day. There has been no detectable second wave, unlike in many other countries including in Scandinavia.
The BBC reported that while Sweden's economy shrank a dire 8.6 per cent between April and June, that's lower than the European Union average of 11.9 per cent. However, its economy is only a touch better off then Denmark.
Tegnell has consistently said Sweden's pre-vaccine approach to dealing with Covid-19 is more sustainable and preferable to rolling lockdowns and re-openings which he has labelled "disastrous in many ways".
Sweden's consistency in its restrictions has led it to be in the now bizarre position of having more in place than many other countries which dropped lockdowns as soon as cases started falling.
Strategy 'could be right'
Last month, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven threw...

I can report that the wheels appear to be officially falling off the 1 o’clock press briefings.
We have come a long long way from an adoring media beaming back at the Prime Minister as she smiled broadly about teddy bears in windows and tooth fairies being exempt to the lockdown. Oh how the worm is turning.
Yesterday for the first time it felt like the press were waking up.
We didn’t get questions about how the PM was feeling, or whether Bloomfield had won Lotto.
No, instead officials got a barrage of non stop questions on the testing fiasco.
Question after question on why there hadn’t been enough carried out, who was to blame, or at the very least take responsibility, how the ball had been dropped so badly, why no one at government level was checking on it.
This part in particular is galling given while the PM was busy telling all of us that all border workers were being tested, her government was in fact not even checking that was the case. And for two months no one at government level seemed to register anything and go hang on, wait a minute, where are the border worker test results? Oh that’s right, we don’t have any. Jeez, does that mean we’re not testing?
So now we have the inevitable chasing of the tail.
And while we’re chasing our tails, we have a community cluster growing, and our first case outside of that community cluster. Unsurprisingly that’s a border worker at the quarantine hotel who doesn’t routinely work there, but goes in and out in a maintenance capacity. Shockingly he showed up for work with a cough, and passed the health check and carried on into work, which begs the question, are the health checks for quarantine facility workers stringent enough?
Well we may never know, because while the press came to life with a battery of questions yesterday, the answers from those in charge were elusive, and underwhelming.
“I don’t have that detail”.. “It’s a mystery”… “We’ll follow that up”.. “We just don’t know”.. “We’ll look at how we can strengthen that”..
These were the actual answers given to questions. I wish I was making that up, I’m not. That’s the level of accountability and competence running things right now. “We just don’t know, it’s all a mystery.”
Let’s hope the mysteries start getting solved real quick, because there is a yawning gap in accountability right now. A total disconnect between what we’re being told and what is actually happening. It’s flu vaccines and PPE all over again. The theory is not matching the reality.
And no one is to blame. Not the Ministry of Health, not the ministers, not the defence force, not the PM, not Ashley Bloomfield, no one.
This is a shambles, and if broadcasting standards allowed, I’d be using the word cluster in an entirely other capacity to describe it.

New Zealanders are using buy now pay later schemes more than ever through the covid-19 pandemic.
It was used for 11 per cent of all online shopping last year, and total spend through the scheme this year is expected to have grown by over 100 per cent.
But consumer advocates are warning the lack of regulation in the sector is leaving too much room for people to go spiralling into debt.
Hannah McQueen is the founding director of enable me.
She joined Kate Hakwebsy to explain the risks and rewards of using the popular scheme.
LISTEN ABOVE

An Auckland principal says letting schools decide whether some year 12 and 13 pupils should return to class is unnecessary.
The Education Ministry has told schools that they can allow these students back to school for face-to-face learning during alert level 3 if they want to.
It follows fears among teachers and principals that Auckland students will fall behind academically during the period the city is at level 3.
Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos told Morning Report the school was working with students in years 11, 12 and 13 to continue learning from home and to make the most of the flexibility that came with NCEA.
"There is a lot they can get on with when they are not in the classroom."
She said letting students back into schools was unfair especially when the wider community was making sacrifices by missing weddings and funerals because of the 10-people limit.
"We don't need to put our communities at risk."
It was a challenging time, but Amos was sure students would get through.
"We know that our tertiary providers will be flexible in terms of pathways into courses next year. I really don't think the future of our young people is at risk by missing a few extra days of school in Auckland.
"But I'd hate to see our communities at risk if we rush back in and allow these bubbles of 20 in schools."
She said it was important that schools students learned to operate in remote environments because this could be life for another two to three years depending on the virus.
"I think this is a knee-jerk response to a few very noisy principals who aren't actually thinking of the safety of the wider community."
Her principal colleagues were shocked that the idea was even on the table.
She said physical distancing was difficult to maintain in a school.
"I've had a lot of support from my community for pushing the message that I worry about their wellbeing and ... that I'm absolutely confident that we're able to be flexible and support the young people in different ways.
"I've not had a single parent contact me wanting access back into the school."
Otago University epidemiologist Michael Baker told Morning Report older students were more likely to behave like adults and reduce transmission of the virus.
But at level 3 face masks should be used in schools, he said.
By RNZ

Victoria's descent into a new wave of infections, which has recorded more than 300 deaths and 16,700 confirmed cases, started amid a scandal over quarantine and security breaches in a series of Melbourne hotels.
Last month, Melbourne's quarantine hotels were identified as a key source behind the virus' terrifying escalation throughout the state which is currently at the beginning of a parliamentary inquiry.
In a special investigation on Monday, ABC's Four Corners has exposed some of the conditions return travellers were put into upon arriving at some of the hotel quarantine facilities. Since March, all travellers returning from overseas have been made to isolate for 14 days in their hotel rooms.
Speaking to the program, one guest who stayed at Rydges on Swanston in April said the conditions within the hotel room were "dirty", and that guards were not adequately protected while on duty.




A police car sits outside the Rydges on Swanston hotel on July 14, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
"There were a couple of rooms that had bedbugs," the guest, Christine Cocks, said.
"The guards that didn't have their gowns on would be wearing gloves and masks. But that doesn't necessarily protect you. If you rub your face with a gloved hand and then after the glove is off, you scratch again, put it in your mouth, near your nose – you're away. There goes your infection."
It is being argued at a parliamentary inquiry that a scandal over quarantine and security breaches in a series of Melbourne hotels is what helped create the city's predicament today – putting millions of Australians in stage 4 lockdown and hundreds losing their lives to the virus.
As part of the investigation, Four Corners concluded the first case at Rydges was in fact a hotel staff member – not a guard as first thought. It is understood the worker completed cleaning jobs in the hotel. But within weeks, the initial case had spread to security guards working at the hotel, who were employed by private firm Unified.
Several insiders said the use of private subcontractors, including Unified Security, were employed without medical training to run the system. This meant hired staff were not properly briefed on their role, or given personal protective equipment, and did not take the job as seriously as they should have.
One security guard, named Peter, told the investigation that he was not told any detail about COVID-19 prior to starting his role at the Novotel on Collins in April, saying everything he knew about the virus he'd learnt "from television".
Peter, who didn't want to be identified, said he felt unsafe because quarantine guests were ushered past him while going to their rooms – without masks or protective equipment.
"They don't have any protective gear; they don't have a mask. And they're not far from more than one foot from us," he said.
"I have a family waiting for me at home … I don't want to pass this disease on to them."
In stunning video and photographs obtained by Four Corners, guests staying at an undisclosed hotel filmed unidentified guards sleeping on the job.
The investigation, which will be aired on the ABC at 8.30pm on Monday, the same day as the public inquiry into Melbourne's bungled hotel quarantine began. Counsel Assisting, Tony Neal QC, confirmed the evidence over the next two days will reveal more about how the current outbreak can be traced back to overseas travellers quarantined in hotels.
He said the fundamental question to be examined by the board of inquiry was who was running and who was accountable for the program.
Unified Security, the company contracted by Rydges Hotel, have hired a lawyer to appear before the inquiry.
Rydges and Melbourne Hotel Group are also legally represented along with a number of government departments.
The hotel quarantine system did not include a frontline role for the Australian...

A whole new group of teenagers will now get to vote.
That one month push-back will see thousands turn 18 before October 17.
Gina Dao-McLay is part of campaign group Make It 16 calling for a lower voting age, she'll turn 18 on September 27.
She told Kate Hawkesby the votes of those who turn 18 before the election are important.
“Young people are going to have to live with government decisions the longest.”
Dao-McLay says there's a lot of people around her age who are engaged in politics.
Make It 16 will argue to lower the voting age to 16 in the Wellington High Court next week.
LISTEN ABOVE

In a U-turn after days of criticism, the British government on Monday scrapped an exam-grading policy that was set to deprive thousands of graduating high school students — especially more disadvantaged ones — of places at universities.
Roger Taylor, chairman of U.K. exam regulator Ofqual, said the use of an algorithm to predict the results of exams that were canceled by the coronavirus pandemic had caused “real anguish and damaged public confidence.”
“It has not been an acceptable experience for young people,” he said. "I would like to say sorry."
Universities in the U.K. offer final-year high school students places based on grades predicted by their teachers. Admission is contingent on the results of final exams, known as A Levels.
This year, with schools largely shut since March and no exams, education authorities in England ran the predicted grades through an algorithm, intended to standardize results, that compared them with schools’ past performance. That meant high-achieving students at under-performing schools, many in deprived areas, saw their marks downgraded, while students at above-average schools kept their predicted grades.
Hundreds of students have held protests, calling the results an injustice, and lawmakers were inundated with complaints from angry parents.
Kay Mountfield, head teacher at a school in Marlow, west of London, said 85% of her students had received lower than predicted grades.
“Seventy of my students have not had their first choice of university,” she said. “Normally that would be about five, or 10 maybe, students.”
The reversal means students in England will receive the grades estimated by their teachers, unless the ones generated by the algorithm are higher. Education authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have made similar moves.
The same policy will apply to GCSEs, the exams taken by 16-year-old students. Those results are due on Thursday.
The U-turn is an embarrassment for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government, but had come to appear inevitable as criticism of the policy spread, even within the ranks of the governing Conservative Party.
“This group of young people have lost out on so much already; we must ensure that bright, capable students can progress on their next step,” Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt said before Monday's announcement.
Defense Minister Johnny Mercer said there were “clear injustices” in the system.
In Scotland, authorities quickly reversed course after a similar fiasco last week, saying students would get their predicted grades. That increased pressure on Johnson to do the same for England.
Johnson, who is on vacation, chaired a call on the crisis Monday with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and senior officials.
Williamson had previously insisted that there would be “no U-turn,” though he said students who had been downgraded could appeal or retake the exams.
But on Monday he acknowledged that “the process of allocating grades has resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process.”
“I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve,” he said.
The announcement did not end the uncertainty for all students, however. Many are scrambling to get in touch with universities to see whether they can now get in.
“I’ve been on hold for an hour, said Testify Anyahamiwe, who hopes to study medicine at Queen Mary University of London.
“Although I'm happy that my grades are definitely going to be higher than what they gave me, I still don't know if I'm going to get my uni place," she said.
Amy Kirkham, from High Wycombe, northwest of London, missed the grades needed to secure her place studying economics at Cambridge University when the algorithm downgraded her in two subjects.
Now she has the...

I told my listeners yesterday that, despite her supporters not wanting it to happen, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would move the election date for three reasons.
One, she doesn't like to go against the grain too much and usually leans into popular decisions with the least amount of fallout. That fate was sealed as soon as her coalition partner NZ First said to delay. Her hands were tied, it would've been too damaging to forge ahead with a September date.
Two, she's in the business of democracy and fairness, and it would be simply undemocratic to have rushed through what's arguably the most important election of our lifetime. The focus right now, especially for those in Auckland and for business and tourist operators, is not an election, but how to survive.
On top of that we are voting on two very important referendums and we need to be able to do that fully informed, with time to make considered decisions. And that's before we even get to policy, which has been put on ice announcement-wise. How do we vote when we don't even know what the policies are yet?
And finally, three: I actually think it's in her best interests not to rush the election.
The further away it is, the further we are from the horror memory of lockdown, the more freedoms we're enjoying, the happier we are. That all reflects better on the Government.
If we went to the polls off the back of another lockdown - still grumpy about our lack of freedoms and worried sick about our businesses and bottom lines - we may punish the Government for it. A chunk of time allows for a gap in the memory, and anything we look back on has a bit more of a rose tint to it ... which is no bad thing for the Government, given the handling currently.
So I think she was always going to make a popular, fair and people-pleasing decision, and one that upset other parties the least. And one that gave her party a good chunk of time to distance itself from their North Korea vibes of "we are the only source of truth", whilst locking us all up.
I spoke with a political scientist yesterday who said we vote on competence.
I don't know that we do, I think we vote on our back pocket. But he was arguing we vote on competence which is why National will get punished and I found that a stretch.
If we're weighing up competence, what's our most recent example of it? The border. The testing, the lack of testing, the failure to check things are being done that they say are being done.
That sheets back to the lack of commercial and private business experience in this Government. It is not used to the measures, checks and balances that a robust business in the private sector would have in place. It is not used to demanding higher standards, or running things efficiently.
So, eight and a bit weeks now to decide. Let's hope we get some policy served up soon.

Beaches strewn with waste, wild campers destroying fragile habitats, warnings from an increasingly overstretched Coastguard, unaffordable accommodations. What was supposed to have been a Great British summer has, for many, become a staycation nightmare.
Cut off by quarantine regulations from cheap trips to popular overseas destinations, UK vacationers were encouraged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to enjoy their own, sometimes overlooked, holiday hotspots when Covid-19 lockdown measures eased in July.
Brits have also been permitted to venture abroad, with those traveling to countries identified on a coronavirus "safe" list exempted from quarantine on their return.
But with Spain, which usually attracts 18 million British tourists each year, hastily withdrawn from the list because of a virus resurgence and France, another popular destination, being dropped from the list this weekend, the demand for UK holidays has skyrocketed.
Research by hotel group The Cairn Collection found there was a 532% growth in searches for trips to Scotland, with searches for trips to ever popular Cornwall up 325% year-on-year.
Johnson, who himself is said to be planning a two-week stay in Scotland, has advised people to visit "peerless, wonderful, superlative places in the UK," rather than heading abroad.
The result has been clogged roads, emergency incidents on the most popular stretches of coastline, a rise in travel scams and soaring prices for accommodation.
Leave no trace
Even before peak summer was underway, there were signs of trouble.
When the last weekend of June saw the UK swelter in a 30 C (86 F) heatwave, an estimated half a million people headed to Dorset, a coastal region in southern England, as lockdown restrictions frayed.
Emergency services in the Dorset resort town of Bournemouth declared a major incident. The local council issued a record 558 parking fines. A massive 33 tons of waste were collected along the Dorset coastline, including human excrement and soiled diapers.
Further east, in the popular coastal city of Brighton, a place similarly blighted by alarmingly sized crowds leaving behind piles of trash, concerned residents began taking matters into their own hands.
"I finally snapped watching the rubbish and bins overflow," says Coral Evans. She's founded a group, Leave No Trace Brighton, that engages with locals on Instagram to coordinate near-daily beach cleanup operations.
"Brighton has always had an issue with beach visitors leaving rubbish, but at the end of June, the seafront became a destination for people coming out of lockdown," she says. "As the masses descended, the rubbish being discarded on the beach increased exponentially."
On June 27, the council's beach cleaners collected 11 tons of waste between the waterfront's two piers, a stretch of around half a mile.
Whenever there's a sunny day, waste on the beach is a "perpetual problem," says Evans.
Because of its proximity to London, Brighton has around 12 million people just one hour away from its famous beach.
But on weekends throughout July and August, the city's council was forced to issue warnings telling anyone who wasn't already in the city not to travel there.
Trains were so busy that social distancing wasn't possible and crowd control measures had to be introduced at the train station. New spot fines of £150 (nearly $200) for leaving waste have been introduced, but Evans says it's hard for the council to enforce.
"With thousands of beach visitors everyday, and only a handful of environment enforcement officers, they really are up against it."
High prices
As staycation demand rose, scammers also swooped in to try to take advantage of those looking for a break close to home.
UK Finance, the country's banking industry body, warned in June that fake listings for motorhomes and caravans were being used to try to target unsuspecting holidaymakers....

The hospitality sector is calling for its own support package.
It comes as Finance Minister Grant Robertson is due to reveal further details about the extension to the wage subsidy, this afternoon.
Hospitality New Zealand CEO's Julie White told Kate Hawkesby they're wanting a capital injection, similar to what was done to support the tourism industry.
"Only last week I had members calling me letting me know the amount of cancellations they had.
"They add up over millions of dollars."
She says that there are also many hotels that are "hibernating" due to what's happening. 
White says this affects the whole of the country.
"We lost four million international travellers when they shut the border, and now approximately 1.6 million people live in Auckland.
"That's another blow to everyone in hospitality throughout New Zealand."