The Second Wave of the Pandemic: New Restrictions in Europe

The dreaded second wave of the pandemic is hitting us all, even appearing on the European shores. According to WHO’s report on Tuesday, within just one week, COVID deaths rose by nearly 40%. While Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and Russia accounted for the majority of cases, Belgium and Italy, too, are not looking at the best possible data.

On Wednesday, Russia reported a daily record of 320 deaths, this came after 16,550 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. The authorities have now made wearing a mask in all crowded places obligatory.

On Sunday, following the announcement of a new state of emergency, a nationwide curfew started functioning in Spain. People in all regions, with the exception of the Canary Islands, are not allowed out of their homes after 11 PM and before 6 AM.

The Czech Republic has the worst infection rate on the European continent, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Over 14 days, it has seen 1,448 cases per 100,000 people. The country is now in a partial lockdown.

The Republic of Ireland also announced its second national lockdown earlier this month for a six-week period.

Italy announced 221 new fatalities on Wednesday, and almost 22,000 new cases, though the officials have explained that they have expanded testing. The Italians, arguably hit hardest by the first wave of the pandemic, are seemingly done and tired of the ‘new norms’: protests rose across the country on Monday against the new round of restrictions.

The regulations that came into force on Monday made it compulsory for all restaurants and bars to close by 6 PM; shut the doors of gyms, swimming pools, theaters and cinemas; and banned gatherings for weddings, baptisms, and funerals. However, Italy, ever-so-cultural, keeps its museums, schools and workplaces opened.

Belgium, having reported over 13,000 new cases overnight early Thursday morning, asked the country’s doctors to continue working even if infected, since the Belgian health system is in danger of being overwhelmed.

France, having reported 36,437 new cases and 244 new deaths on October 28, entered a form of lockdown from Friday. The French will be allowed to leave their homes only if they have essential work to get to, or medical issues to take care of. French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted by the BBC as saying that the “second wave no doubt will be harder that the first.” True to his words, the French daily deaths are now the highest since April.

Macron said in a televised report Wednesday that the new regulations will have people needing to fill out a form before leaving their homes, to justify the reason they need to do so, much like the French state required the population to do back in March when the first lockdowns began. Social gatherings are now banned in the country, with the exception of public services and factories, in order to keep the economy from stopping, or rather, from collapsing.

Germany has also moved to impose a lockdown, but a “softer” one than France.

The German lockdown includes the closure of restaurants, bars, gyms and theaters, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s report on Wednesday. While the German state’s rise in COVID infections is not as alarming as the recent data of many other European countries, Berlin has decided, as Chancellor Merkel put it, to “act now.” The country’s health system can still cope, but is in danger of reaching its maximum limits if the rate of infection continues to rise at the current speed.

Germany’s new partial lockdown will start on November 2, and if all goes well, end on November 30. Bars and restaurants will only offer takeaway services, and only up to 10 people will be allowed at social gatherings. However, schools and kindergartens will remain open.

The UK faced 310 new deaths and 24,701 new cases on Wednesday. In addition, a new study was published according to which 100,000 people are catching the virus every day. The British government is under pressure to change their approach to handling the virus.

Despite the COVID situation in the country, the British government is not in favor of imposing a nationwide lockdown.

“Instead, earlier this month, officials announced a new COVID tier system, which enables regions to go into localized lockdowns,” writes the BBC. Tier three is the strictest category, which now covers a few areas of the country, including Liverpool.

The UK’s constituent states have separate administrations which can choose their own paths in setting the COVID restriction policies. Wales, for one, has announced a 17-day "circuit breaker" lockdown. Non-essential retailers have been ordered to close, and much like in France, people are only allowed to leave their homes for particular reasons.

The new and old restrictions have reflected on the EU economies. Italy, Spain, France and the UK, some of the biggest players in the European market were also some of the worst-hit states by the coronavirus. They also imposed some of the strictest regulations to prevent the spread and fatalities resulting from the virus. On these terms, the lockdowns were effective, lowering the COVID mortality and infection rate, but hitting the countries’ economies hard. Traveling, restaurants, bars and shops were only reopened early in the summer. However, in August, maybe exactly because of the reopening of the economies, we saw a surge in the COVID cases globally. As a result, on Wednesday, the European Union saw sharp falls in the financial markets. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was even quoted as saying "I think that this year's Christmas will be a different Christmas."

The French President’s words that the “second wave no doubt will be harder than the first” is perhaps even more applicable for Georgia. Ever since late August, the country has been reporting an unseen rise in COVID cases, breaking anti-records of new daily cases almost by the day. On Thursday, 1709 new cases of coronavirus were detected in Georgia, bringing the total number of infected people to 35,567.

Adjara, Tbilisi and Imereti are still responsible for the biggest numbers, with 445 cases being recorded in Tbilisi, 437 in Adjara, and 388 in Imereti on Thursday. 3324 citizens are in mandatory quarantine and 4209 under examination in hospitals. 2346 people are in COVID hotels.

20 patients died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours in Georgia, bringing the total death toll since March to 273.

The number of recovered patients has increased by 2075, however, to reach a total of 16,904. Among them is a one month-year-old girl from Kutaisi.

With 18,390 active cases of coronavirus in Georgia at the time of writing, the country is near exhausting its hospitalization limits. Towards the end of the week, some speculations were heard about a new set of stricter regulations, or a possible lockdown, to come into force from Monday, after the country’s parliamentary elections on Saturday. The government has denied such claims, but nothing will be clear until the results of the elections are known.

By Nini Dakhundaridze

Source: The BBC