For the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has been an all-too-real threat which has affected the lives of billions around the world. The pandemic brought significant changes, even to those who were not infected with the illness, such as new health mandates and lifestyle adjustments. But as the pandemic wears on, and people become more accustomed to these changes, many have relaxed on the strictness of following the new safety measures. Writer for Business Insider Aria Bendex calls this “pandemic fatigue” and warns that it “may cause people to perceive activities as lower risk, even though transmission is higher.” The result of this pandemic fatigue is a sudden increase in cases. 

For this reason, Europe has recently seen a large spike in Covid-19 cases that are surpassing records set earlier in the year. Countries that have been hit the hardest are France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Sophomore Vivian Nguyen observes that “France has been hit really hard with a second wave of cases, as I’ve seen numbers get up to the 40,000s in just one day. I applaud President Macron’s actions in trying to slow down the spread using nighttime curfews and other restrictions.” 

Health clinics have been overwhelmed with the daily increase of Covid-19 patients, and as more and more people are returning to everyday activities, the virus is harder than ever to control. In the United Kingdom, similar statistics were reported in mid- October. An increase of 3,000 positive cases per week has been reported, and this number is only expected to increase as winter approaches. 

The dramatic increase in coronavirus cases have affected the lives of many Europeans, but has also impacted the lives of Hingham High School students who were planning to attend a trip abroad to France and Spain. Both of these countries are currently some of the most affected areas in Europe. Junior Alex Denning, who was planning to be a part of the trip this year says, “I think it was predicted that there was going to be a spike in October for a long time, so it isn’t that unexpected. Obviously it is unfortunate, but I don’t think the trip was ever really going to be back on.” 

Covid-19 has already had a profound impact on the world, and this resurgence of the virus has made it clear that it will continue to do so for a considerable period of time.