Swedish children continued to stream through the gates of their schools and kindergartens on Thursday as the Nordic nation stood increasingly alone in Europe in its approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

Shops and restaurants also remained open across the country, with parks and recreational areas packed with groups enjoying the spring sunshine.

Despite a surge in Covid-19 patients and growing dissent among epidemiological experts, the Swedish government’s medical experts stood by their decision not to follow almost all other EU nations and institute economic and social lockdowns.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist, said the different approach reflected the independence traditionally enjoyed by government agencies like the Public Health Agency of Sweden and the reluctance of politicians to override expert advice.

"I might look like the figurehead, but agencies in Sweden are very much working as a whole," he told The Telegraph. "These are not decisions I take on my own in my little office."

He conceded, however, that if infection rates do start to soar and Sweden ends up in a similar situation to Italy or Spain, he would face criticism.

"Of course, I and the agency will be to blame, for sure. I'm quite aware of that," he said. "But I would feel a lot worse taking a lot of decisions I don't believe in and for things to go wrong, than to take decisions I and the agency very much do believe in and for things not to work out."

Unlike Denmark and Norway, which both shut schools and kindergartens, and where, in Denmark at least, any gathering of more than 10 people is banned, much of life in Sweden remains unchanged.