"Introduction
In the responses to COVID-19, countries have implemented response strategies along a continuum of population and venue-level specificity. The most common response has been a suppression strategy popularly called 'The Hammer and the Dance,' where the 'hammer' consists of population-wide shelter-in-place mandates or lockdowns, closing nonessential physical venues, travel bans, combined with testing and contact tracing, is alternated with the “dance,” consisting of testing, contact tracing, quarantines, and sustained travel bans. In contrast, Sweden has followed a mitigation strategy, including instituting risk-tailored strategies to mitigate acquisition risks among the elderly, minimizing the disruption to education and the delivery of other healthcare services, and general public health measures to minimize the disease burden across the whole population...
Education
An example of a strategic decision based on the principle of equity was the decision to keep childcare and elementary schools open throughout the height of the pandemic, for children ages 1 to 15, while most high schools and universities used remote teaching until mid-June. In contrast, a common intervention in many countries included the closure of all schools for in-person teaching with exclusive reliance on virtual education...
Out of 1.8 million children in daycare centers and primary schools, ages 1–15, there were zero COVID-19 deaths and eight ICU admissions (incidence 1/230,000) by mid-June [of 2020] when summer vacation started."
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