KEY POINTS
  • France and Spain are now seeing more new cases every day than they did when the virus originally peaked in the spring.
  • "We have a very serious situation unfolding before us," said WHO's regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge.
  • Europe's experience in the pandemic offers a key lesson for Americans and policymakers, epidemiologists said: If countries let their guard down, the virus will find opportunities to infect people, regardless of a community's prior success.
Health workers push a stretcher with a patient in the emergency unit at 12 de Octubre hospital amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Madrid, Spain, September 2, 2020.

"Pandemic fatigue" has set in across parts of Europe where the outbreak is on the rise again in some countries that were hailed early on for stamping out massive outbreaks.

France and Spain are now seeing more new cases every day than they did when the virus originally peaked in the spring. Israel on Friday entered a second nationwide lockdown, shuttering restaurants, hotels, gyms and more, amid soaring new cases and as the Jewish High Holiday season begins. While epidemiologists expected autumn to be worse, the rapid resurgence comes ahead of the official start of fall on Tuesday.