European countries are re-imposing lockdowns amid the second wave of Coronavirus

Summary

• More than 48 million people have been infected worldwide in almost nine months.
• Europe is currently facing its second wave of outbreak, severe than the first one which is leading the countries to go back to lockdowns including UK, France, Germany.
• Some of the causes of the severe second wave are lowering of the guard, drop in the temperature, opening up of the economy and new strain of the virus.
• PM Boris Johnson has again shut down all non-essential services in the second lockdown in the UK.
• Germany imposed a little relaxed lockdown while Belgium imposed a stricter one, considering the nation is the 5th worst hit in the world with more than 40k cases per million of population.   

The Coronavirus has infected more than 48 million people on the planet in a span of mere nine months. The outbreak has been witnessed across the globe with some nations getting affected way more than others. 

Some of the worst-hit nations include the USA, India, Brazil and few European countries like France, UK, Italy, Spain etc.

Second wave of the virus in Europe

Europe had already been hit hard from the virus outbreak in the initial wave, and now it is going through a much dangerous wave two. During March, April and May, the number of cases in entire Europe were being reported around 35,000 and 38,000. These numbers steadily declined as new epicenters like the USA and India started to emerge.

At once the situation was looking pretty controlled when the number of cases declined below 20,000 during July and August. However, in the month of October, the cases have risen way too fast for the countries even to react, making it a far worse wave than the previous one. At once, the total number of cases in a day have also surpassed 250k mark for entire Europe.

Considering the pace at which the virus is spreading, several European countries, the UK, France, Germany have re-imposed the lockdowns in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

Potential causes of the second wave 

Image Source: © Kalkine Group

Lowering of guard

The primary reason that arguably led to the much severe second wave is the lowering of the guard, especially after the new cases started to decline during summers. People began to travel extensively, even for leisure.

Drop in the temperature

A change in the weather could also be the reason behind the unexpected surge of new cases. There are primarily two reasons for it. As the temperature goes down, people tend to remain indoors with closed doors and windows, which is the ideal setting for the virus to spread among people in a room easily. The interaction of people inside a closed room tends to increase the effectiveness of the transmission of the virus.

The second reason, as depicted by many studies, the seasonal effect tends to worsen the virus outbreak like the case with other respiratory viruses, including influenza.

New Strain of virus

Different strains of the Coronavirus have been found throughout the world since it was identified. The new strain of the virus is nothing but the mutated version of the existing virus, which can change the entire virus genome. According to a study led by the University of Basel's Emma Hodcroft, a new mutated virus genome has been found in some areas of Italy which have spread far across Europe.

Recently, Denmark has also announced that it has found a new strain of Covid19 in the Mink population, so different that it can hamper the efforts to develop a vaccine. The government has already passed the information to WHO and is planning to cull the Mink’s population.

A different strain of the virus has also been discovered in the USA, which causes acute diarrhea in piglets and has the potential to spread to humans. All these different strains discovered across the world are only making it difficult to tackle the outbreak. 

Opening up of the economy

The businesses were shut down in March and April as an ad-hoc measure to curb the virus. However, the economy cannot be shut down till the world see a vaccine, which could potentially take a few more months. As the economy started to open, the restrictions in the movement of people were relaxed, which consequently led to a worse situation after a lag of a couple of months.

In summers, when the cases started to drop across the continent, it gave a false sense of control of the situation.  

Re-imposition of the lockdowns

Recently, the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared a nationwide lockdown of four weeks which includes a complete ban on overseas travel except for work, education, or other legally permitted exemptions. All non-essential services like Gyms, pubs, restaurants etc. will remain closed during the lockdown. Religious services of all kinds have also come under a complete shutdown.

Germany has also gone into one-month partial lockdown amid the unexpected rise in the new cases. On 21st October, the country saw its highest spike of 11,287 in a day which led the government to take stringent measures including curfews in a few regions.

This lockdown is less intense as compared to the previous one, which almost led the economy to nosedive within a few months. Restaurant and bars will remain close except for take-aways. Although the travel is not banned, the government has advised to not to travel if unnecessary.

All the sports events are allowed, but in the absence of spectators and large events or gatherings are completely restricted. The government has encouraged the companies to adopt work from home regime. 

Belgium has gone into a much tighter lockdown and closing almost all non-essential business. Prime Minister Alexander de Croo has even said: “These are last-chance measures if we want to get the figures down”. The households will be allowed to receive only one visitor and half-term holidays for the schools are to be extended till 15th November.

Those employees who can carry out their jobs from home will be asked to do so. Belgium has one of the worst outbreaks in the world when “cases per million of population” are considered. Currently, it has more than 40k coronavirus cases per million of the population which makes it 5th worst hit nation in the world.     

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