Pandemic cases spiking, but will Europe accept restrictions again?

Wedding photographer Emma Case remembers a sense of duty evoked by the United Kingdom’s spring lockdown.

The blanket ban on leaving homes felt draconian, says Ms. Case, a Liverpool resident whose income suddenly evaporated. But the country rallied in solidarity around touch points such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s getting sick and a 99-year-old war veteran walking his garden for charity.

It feels different this time, as coronavirus caseloads surge past spring highs across Europe. Hospitals are filling up again. “[We] are becoming tired. We’re in murky water,” says Ms. Case. “Perhaps that’s the natural psychological course, but the mountain to overcome mental fatigue is bigger than I first thought.”

The numbers are rising rapidly. Britain has logged more than 150,000 new cases in the last week, while France recently topped a daily record of 52,000 new infections. Governments are weighing reintroducing new restrictions in response, in hopes of replicating successes from the spring.

But the U.K., Spain, France, Italy, and Germany

In Italy, “back to square one”Uncertainty, infighting in Spain and FranceThe battle between Manchester and LondonFor Germany, “the motivation is waning”