Coronavirus cases spiked again in multiple areas and has increased the total number of cases to 40 million. The second wave is hitting local areas including Lake County  and many other countries like Israel and the Czech Republic have reinstated nationwide closure. There is even talk of schools going back to full remote due to the heavy increase of cases in local areas. Europe has seen a huge spike, recently surpassing America in cases per million.

On Monday, October 9, NPR reported that coronavirus cases had reached 40,050,902 and both Europe and America are scrambling due to the heavy increase in cases in the past 2 months. In Europe, the second wave started in August after lockdown was relaxed. Since August, European governments have scrambled to decrease the number of cases by implementing limits on openings of pubs and restaurants, restricting public gatherings, and now curfews in major french cities like Paris. The WHO (World Health Organization) recently stated that the second wave increase in Europe is ‘concerning” as the number of available intensive care beds continues to dwindle and near capacity in some regions. Europe recently came out with numbers showing that they are currently doing worse than the United States, having 187 new covid cases per million people, while America is at 162 cases per million. Between Europe, Asia. America, and Aftrica there have had over 39.8 million cases confirmed  just between these four areas since the start of Coronavirus. 

The beginning of October started with 40 million confirmed cases and a second wave hitting hard in both America and Europe. The second wave has made many schools and businesses question continuing to stay open during this. Schools especially are trying to protect the students from Coronavirus. School boards and teachers continue to talk about the idea that schools will go back to full remote learning if cases continue to skyrocket the way they are  now. In The United Kingdom, the Senior Cabinet Minister Michael Gove in an interview on BBC states,  “We’re trying to strike a balance. We’re trying to stay that schools, of course, should remain open. We want workplaces where people have to be in the factory or in the shop in order to do their job to remain open in a COVID-secure way.” This is important because currently the United Kingdom is doing worse than America, yet the government is trying hard to keep schools and businesses open but take extreme precautions when they are open. He states that they are trying to keep it open but have it open with a “covid secure way.”

Now to focus on Illinois, on October 22, the article “COVID-19 second wave: 5 updated ways to stay healthy” by The Chicago Tribune was published. In the article Dr. Emily Landon who is an epidemiologist (that is, one who studies diseases within populations) at the University of Chicago Medical Center, says “For Illinois alone, this upstick in cases could be considered a second wave. But for the country, this is more like the third wave- first were the urban centers, including Chicago, in spring and second was the Sun Belt in summer”. On top of this the article states that Illinois officials on Tuesday announced it’s time to revert back to earlier Lockdown Levels in certain parts of the states. The article goes on to state how this can be very heartbreaking to those who took this very seriously and are now heartbroken due to the upcoming holidays and how many will not be able to spend time with their families and friends. Just recently the chatter in local areas around Lake County have been serious leading to stricter and more serious ways of handling COVID-19. There is talk of indoor eating shutting down and school has recently gone into full virtual.

This second wave can and will cause massive damage to countries but even more damage locally to businesses and schools. Many expect to go back into a lockdown early this year. It is upsetting to many to have to spend these upcoming holidays without their families and friends.