As winter approaches and events move indoors, cases in Europe have increased immensely. In France, cases during May, June, and July remained steadily in the hundreds. However, by the end of August to the beginning of November, daily cases increased significantly: up to 86,852 cases in a single day (November 7th, 2020). With this trend being seen in other European countries, many countries in Europe decided to undergo another lockdown in hopes of controlling the spread.

With winter approaching, social events have slowly begun to move indoors, which has been a contributing factor to the increase in cases in Europe. According to ScienceMag, Europe had passed the United States in cases per capita, which led to many European leaders issuing a lockdown order starting the beginning of November. In the beginning of November, Germany went under a lockdown for one month. Restaurants, bars, and gyms were all among some accommodations that had to close down for the month long lockdown. 

Germany’s lockdown has been extended to December 20th. Although originally the lockdown was meant to only last until December 2nd, officials feared a third lockdown may come after Christmas if restrictions were relaxed too early. Greece’s lockdown which was only meant to last until November 30th was extended an additional week due to a rise in cases. A curfew from 9pm to 5am is still mandated according to AXIOS.

France’s second lockdown has proven to be at least a little bit of a success: cases in France have been on a decreasing trend, down to 11,022 as of December 6th. Due to this success, France planned to reopen nonessential businesses on November 28th according to the New York Times. Bars and restaurants, however, are not scheduled to reopen until mid-January at the earliest. People must carry permission slips to leave their homes, but they are allowed to travel 20 kilometers away from their homes, which increased from the previous one kilometer limit. If by December 15th the daily number of new cases does not surpass 5,000 and that the number of intensive care patients is not more than 3,000, restrictions will ease even further.