Here in Germany we have had, thanks to having a scientist in charge of the country, a comparatively low level of covid infections and deaths compared to our neighbors in Europe and, of course, way way below the rates in the US. (We’ve 1/4 the population of the US and the total number of Covid deaths just recently crossed the 10,000 mark.)
I don’t have to worry about the supermarkets or shops – never ever see anyone without a mask, period. The guys delivering for Amazon and DHL wear masks and stay about 3 steps down on the stoop handing stuff over. There are also some folks who are protesting like in the US, but that’s minimal. Of course we are tired of it all but we keep on.
So, as soon as the weather starting getting cooler, the numbers started going up. On 2 November we started “lockdown lite” for 4 weeks in which some further restrictions were imposed (my husband’s yoga group, which had been reduced to a max of 8 people rather than 20, in a large well-ventilated room, has stopped until the end of November). Smaller shops have to be careful to limit the number of customers at one time and private gatherings are limited to 10 people from max 2 households, with pretty heavy fines instituted for ignoring this.
This was all done now with the hopes that they could “save” Christmas for families this year. But in spite of all this, the numbers are worrisome. They are still warning of not achieving the flattening hoped for and the lockdown lite may be extended.
BUT: here’s the frightening thing. Last spring, Merkel and her advisors had rearranged resources in anticipation of the pandemic getting bad, and did it so well, that the capacity was never maxed out and in fact were able to take in quite a number of covid patients from Italy and France and other neighboring countries.
Yesterday I watched a thing on German TV in which they interviewed a doctor at a major hospital in Berlin. He said that in their hospital there are two lung wards. In the spring, they only ever filled up the one ward, but this time around they are almost at capacity on both. In other words, what’s happening this time around is that more people are needing hospitalization. And they are concerned about capacity for the first time in this pandemic. And we are only at the beginning of the winter season, so who knows how bad it will get.
(We are very happy that our daughter who is a physician at a hospital in Berlin is still at home on maternity leave rather than at the hospital…)
And, again, this is happening even where 95% of the people are following the rules.
(BTW, they suspect that small private gatherings where people feel “safer” because it’s friends and family instead of strangers are responsible for the upswing…especially because these gatherings are happening at home rather than in public places.)
ETA: Just read an article in which a the head of the Robert Koch Institute (Germany’s equivalent to Johns Hopkins) Lothar Wieler said “Wir müssen noch ein paar Monate die Pobacken zusammenkneifen”, which basically translates into “we’re gonna have to continue to squeeze our butt-cheeks together for another few months…” 
Wish I could take a turn at THAT Piñata! 
