Third-Wave Surge

May 3, 2021

India

India is in the middle of a public health catastrophe. A second wave of infections has hit the country that until March seemed to have the coronavirus under control. Hospital beds are full, and medical supplies—most crucially, oxygen—are in short supply. On April 28, 2021, India recorded 360,000 new COVID cases and 3,000 deaths in a 24-hour span. All the while, scientists are concerned that a new variant—an ominously titled “double mutant strain”—is behind the skyrocketing case count. 

On April 30, 2021, the Biden administration confirmed that the US will restrict travel from India starting May 4 in response to the surge of coronavirus cases and variants being observed in the country. The White House also said it was delivering supplies - including vaccines and oxygen tanks - worth more than $100 million in the coming days to provide urgent relief to India. President Biden mentioned that India had helped the United States during the early stages of the pandemic and that now it was its turn to return the favor. He was referring to the export of the medicine hydroxychloroquine of which India is the largest producer.

United Kingdom

In response to a new Covid-19 variant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a third national lockdown in England on January 4, 2021. Lockdown measures are also still in effect in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. However,  lockdown restrictions were eased starting March 29 with the groups of up to six people or two households permitted to meet socially and pubs reopening. Learn more about it HERE.

Belgium

Belgium went into a four-week lockdown beginning April. A virus variant first identified in Britain took a heavy toll on the health of the country's people - hospital admissions rose 28 percent following a long stable period. The lockdown is beginning to ease now, with schools starting to reopen and a ban on non-essential travel being lifted.

France

In early April, French President Emmanuel Macron announced schools in the country will close for at least three weeks as part of new national lockdown restrictions, with children moving to remote learning. Lockdown measures, introduced in some areas of France, were also being extended to other districts. All non-essential shops were closed  and there was a ban on traveling more than six miles from home without good reason. The move was taken as more than 5,000 people are currently in intensive care. The lockdown is currently expected to continue until at least May 3.

Germany

Germany implemented tough lockdown rules in a bid to curb the third wave of infections, issuing a set of new measures expected to last until June. These rules include a curfew, limits on customers in shops, leisure center closures, and limits on household contacts. The country has been struggling to suppress the third wave, largely attributed to the spread of a more infectious strain of the virus that first emerged in the U.K. last fall.

Italy

In early April, many parts of Italy entered a new lockdown in a bid to fight rising rates of coronavirus. As in Germany, this too was in response to a variant of the virus found in Britain. On 1 April, it registered 23,634 new cases and 501 deaths. The lockdown extended to the end of April. On April 26, coffee bars, restaurants, and cinemas across Italy reopened as COVID-19 cases fell throughout the country. Fourteen of the country's regions were designated "yellow," or low COVID-19 risk. Another five regions were at an orange level. Only one region, Sardinia, remains under red alert, Reuters reported. Although restaurants can once again welcome back customers, a 10 p.m. curfew is still in place.

National Numbers for the US

It has been more than a year after much of the country entered strict lockdowns to contain the coronavirus, A nationwide patchwork of rules for businesses and residents has resulted from months of trial and error, as governors have reopened some sectors only to later re-close and reopen them again as infection rates rose and fell. Many states are moving closer to lifting all restrictions now that the vaccine rollout is underway. Others are still mandating the use of masks indoors or in public and keeping other limits in place. Learn more about it HERE