That is literally what governments are trying to achieve unfortunately, one more dead means one less covid case, that is how they see it 
Ever Heard of the herd immunity? here is the link about herd Immunity. There is no vaccine for covid19 right now so the goverment could be secretly trying to achieve this herd immunity by hoping that people that have been infected will create some sort of auto immune in their body
They cant really sacrifce the entire country's economy because of lockdown therefore most country has open up and let people work and do stuff as normally as ever ( Secretly hoping that herd immunity would be achieved naturally before a vaccine is created )