Outside MA: All of the EU revisited in December

It's been a minute and with Germany implementing a hard lockdown and closing all non-essential businesses from 23-Dec through 09-Jan, I figured now would be a good time to check in our friends across the Atlantic.... 

Periodically, I look at states and countries where I have friends and/or family to see how those states are doing with COVID-19 cases. I always take a look at the population size of the state as well so that the comparison I'm making to MA numbers is somewhat valid. 

Today: EVERY EU COUNTRY! Buckle up, it's gonna be a long trek.  Feel free to look for a particular country that is of interest to you.  They're alphabetically organized.  UK is leaving the EU so they don't get a check-in today.

• Austria managed to drive their cases down in the last month, but look like they may have reached a plateau in that effort
• Back on 19-Nov, they had just wrapped up a 7-day period with 79.5 cases per 100,000 people.
• They've now driven that down to 30.7, which is great, but hopefully their aim is lower
• Belgium had already driven their super-high numbers down but they seem to have stalled out in the few weeks.
• At the end of October, they had an average 160.3 cases per 100,000 people per day!  As of 19-Nov, they'd really cut that spread down significantly, reducing it nearly by 75%.  
• They kept going for a bit but appear to have stabilized at around 20 with the last 7 days averaging 20.4.
• Bulgaria ... didn't really go down much since the last check-in
• Bulgaria never really had a first wave and instead saw single digits in cases per 100,000 people per day through to the end of September
• Since September, however, they've seen a rapid climb and the 7 days prior to 19-Nov saw an average of 47.4 cases per 100,000 people per day!
• The average for the last 7 days is just slightly lower at 36.8... but slow and steady something something...
• Croatia just keeps going and going and going and...
• Croatia saw single digit cases per day per 100,000 people through the end of September.
• They saw a rather quick rise in cases at the start of October and have since slowed their climb.  
• Back on 19-Nov, they had a 7-day average of 62.6 cases per day per 100,000 people! This rate was higher than the USA's overall and MA's rates at that point (49.6 and 32 respectively)
• They now sit at 89.5, compared to the USA's current 67.1 and MA's current 68.9.
• Cyprus is also growing but does not have as high a rate as Croatia
• Cyprus started with a small first wave that maxed out at around 4.6 cases per day per 100,00 people back at the start of April.
• They then saw a period of single digit cases overall across the entire 876k population for a few months, followed by a period in August that sort of looks like a second wave when compared to the first wave.
• And then came October... and as of 19-Nov they were seeing 19.4 cases per day per 100,000 people.  Still not bad when compared to MA, USA, or indeed many of their fellow EU countries but pretty bad given how the rest of their timeline looks.
• They're now at 43.2, so, still much lower than MA and USA, but still increasing.
• Czech Republic made great strides but that's in the past.
• Like Cyprus, you almost wouldn't notice the first wave back in March when looking at the overall timeline, never seeing a single day above 3.5 cases per 100,000 people.
• September started their fall wave but they reached their peak by the end of October/early November.  At this peak, they saw a huge 120.5 cases per 100,000 people per day!
• As of 19-Nov, they saw a 7-day average of 48.9 cases per day per 100,000 people and have since dipped just slightly lower to 43.3.... and appear to be starting to increase again.
• Denmark is another one of those countries that just keeps climbing.
• Their first wave saw a peak in April with 5.7 cases per day per 100,000.  Let's take a moment to acknowledge that that's lower than most states in the USA reached in their trough between waves.
• It had looked like they had steadied out back on 19-Nov at 18.7 cases per day per 100,000 people... but that was clearly not the case as they started rapidly climbing shortly thereafter and are now at 47.1
• Estonia is another one of those countries that just keeps climbing.
• Their first wave peaked at 4.1 cases per day per 100,000 people
• Their second wave started with a slow increase of cases through September and October and then as November hit, so did the significant rise in cases.  
• As of 19-Nov, they had reached only at 19.4 cases per day per 100,000 people... and that has now increased to only 33.2
• Finland is climbing too, but well... you'll see...
• Their first wave peaked at just 2.9 cases per day per 100,000 people.  The fact that I'm not saying anything about it not being a wave and it peaking that low should tell you something about what comes next.
• Their second wave rapidly sped up at the end of September but had been only slowly increasing since the beginning of October.... until about 19-Nov when they started more rapidly climbing again... but they're now still only 8.2 cases per day per 100,000!  Seriously, with the climb they've done, this really tells you about how low they've been all along.  8.2 is DOUBLE what they were seeing mid-Nov.  Can you imagine being in a state with a rate of 8.2?!?  I would be soooo happy!  
• France got over it's second wave but, as with so many others that have done so, have plateaued in that downturn.
• Back on 19-Nov, they had 42.6 cases per day per 100,000 people.
• They drove that down and are now at 18.0.
• Germany... I believe the reason they are going into lockdown isn't so much to avoid the immediate activities people are performing but rather as a precaution against the activities they expect people would undertake during the time they're locked down.... which is to say, they're more worried about the actions of people celebrating Christmas/New Years than their general activity.  Otherwise, why wait a week and a couple days?  Why not implement the lockdown, say, this Wednesday or at least start it this weekend?  Either way, though, the precaution of shutting things down and sending a clear message to the populace that they're at risk, while still seeing fewer cases than MA did at the height of our first wave, is heartening.
• Back on Nov 19, Germany's cases had a 7-day average of 21.9 leading into my EU review.  
• Today, they're averaging 26.9.  Still super-low compared to MA and the USA as a whole.
• Greece, I'm happy to report, hasten this seriously and driven their cases down since 
• Greece reached just 24.9 cases per day per 100,000 people back on 19-Nov and has now driven that down to 12.1 and appear to still be going down.  Greece, I love you.  Thank you.
• Hungary has steadied off.
• Their first wave had 2 cases per day per 100,000 people at it's peak
• The second wave reached 49.8 cases per day per 100,000 on 19-Nov but they've managed to stabilize and are now at 44.0 
• Ireland continues at their low after their second wave... neither wave getting super high and their new normal being very reasonable in comparison to, you know, us.
• Their first wave peaked at 17.4 cases per day per 100,000 people and their first post-wave low reached 0.2.
• Their second wave peaked at 23.8 cases per day per 100,000 people.
• They now sit at 5.6.
• Italy turns out to have been peaking back on 19-Nov and have been going down since.
• At the peak of their first wave, they saw 9.2 cases per day per 100,000 people. 
• They dropped in between waves to fewer than 0.5 cases per day per 100,000!  Name a state that did that please.
• Their second wave currently peaked around 58 cases per day per 100,000.
• They are down to 27.2 now.  Keep doing what you're doing, Italy.
• Latvia is another one that keeps going up... but likewise with many others in that situation is still much lower than USA/MA
• At the peak of their first "wave", it looks like they had 1.8 cases per day per hundred thousand and then they dropped to fewer than 0.5 cases per day per 100,000!
• They were at 18.2 cases per day per 100k as of 19-Nov and have nearly doubled with 31.7 now.
• Lithuania has continued to climb and they're looking pretty bad
• With a first "wave" of 1.4 cases per day per 100k and a low after of around 0.07....
• Unfortunately, their current wave is substantial with 53.9 cases per day per 100,000 as of 19-Nov and, while they looked like they had levels off, they have since increased again and are now at 94.3.
• Luxembourg, is not in quite the trouble they were a month ago but...
• They started with a 24.3 cases per day per 100,000 people first wave.
• They were able to drive those cases down to 3.1 cases per day per 100,000 in between waves through June but then started seeing slightly more cases in July through September.
• October brought on the second wave though and at 159.8 cases per day per 100,000 in the 7 days leading up to 19-Nov... but they appear to have stabilized and maybe even decreased in terms of average, having and of 87.0 in the last 7 days.
• Malta is coming down from their second wave...
• Malta had 4.5 cases per day per 100,000 at the peak of their first wave at the start of April and then had a long period of nearly no cases... there was even a 8 day period where they saw no new cases at all!
• Their second wave peaked right around the time of my last review at 25.6 cases per day per 100,000.
• Still going down, they're reached 18.3
• Netherlands saw a minor first wave, a major second wave, and... seems to have gotten into a third wave?
• First wave reached 6 cases per day per 100,000.
• Second wave started in September and seems to have reached its peak in late October with 55.7 cases per day per 100,000.
• Progress had been been made on 19-Nov at 31.3 cases per day per 100,000 people, but that appears to have been the bottom of their low between waves... 
• They're now at 46.5 and climbing quickly.
• Poland looks to have stabilized after their fall wave.
• For a really long time, Poland was seeing about 0.8 cases per day per 100,000 people.
• Their wave peaked in early November.  They saw 67.3 cases per day per 100,000 at the beginning of November and were down to 58.2 as of 19-Nov.  
• They continued to make great progress, reaching 27.2 now, but it looks like that may be the end of their down sizing... still, that's decent in comparison to some.
• Portugal had peaked but seem to maybe be going up again?
• Their fall wave peaked right around 19-Nov with 60.9 cases per 100,000 people per day, 
• They drove that down to 36.5 but looks like it's going up again.
• Romania is slowly decreasing.
• Through June, Romania saw about 2.4 cases per day per 100,000 people
• There was a very slow but steady increase in cases which really started spiking in October.  
• They peaked around 43.9 cases per day per 100,000 in mid-Nov.
• They've been decreasing throughout December and are now down to 31.5.
• Slovakia had turned the corner on their first fall wave, but are back to climbing again.
• They were seeing at most 0.5 cases per day per 100,000 through July
• They then very slowly started increasing cases until September where it picked up steam.
• They reached what looks like a peak at the end of October with 46.7 (fewer than the USA sees while still climbing) and had started shrinking those numbers down to the 25.7 they saw on 19-Nov.... but shortly thereafter started climbing again and...
• they are now at 42.6.
• Slovenia has been relatively stable for the last month and a half... at a high rate.
• They spent most of the year at about 2.4 or fewer cases per day per 100,000.
• Late October really seemed like a decent time to slow the climb.  Slovenia halted around a whopping 90.6 cases per day per 100,000 and, while they've made some ground...
• they are now at 72.1 and look to have been since the start of November.
• Spain has been heading down from their second wave but may have stalled out a bit
• They reduced their peak of 32.1 per day per 100,000 people per day at its second peak, down to 21.1 on 19-Nov and now 20.0.
• Sweden continues a slow climb for their second wave.
• Their first wave "peaked" at 10.4 cases per day per 100,000 but it was a long wave which was essentially just a very very slow climb in cases over the course of 4 months and then a decline over the course of July.
• They spent August around 1-2 cases per day per 100,000 people.
• Then, in October (shocking, I know) they climbed quickly to 49.1 in November.
• It looked like they might have turned a corner at the time of my last review but clearly that wasn't the case as they have risen to 57.5.

Essentially, the EU is all over the place with some increasing and some at the other side of their fall wave, but most are fairing better than the USA and MA and not just by a little.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay informed.