Coronavirus restrictions are taking effect in the Netherlands, the U.K., the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe on Wednesday as nations try to reverse an alarming wave in new cases. The continent is now seeing more new coronavirus cases – an average of 100,000 daily — than at any other time during the pandemic.
Bars, restaurants and schools are being shut down or sharply limited, and officials are working to bolster hospital capacity, to accommodate an expected influx of new COVID-19 patients.
Numbers that showed signs of taking off in late August and September are now skyrocketing. Europe reported more than 700,000 new coronavirus cases last week – a surge representing a 36% weekly increase, as NPR’s Reese Oxner recently reported.
Europe’s infection rate “has been increasing for 77 days,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in its most recent weekly report for the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom.
Here, a sampling of the situation in Europe.
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