| Major W European, the US, and Swedish countries | Northern European countries |
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Observations:
- in early March and April 2020, Italy followed by Spain and Belgium were the first countries to experience an outbreak
- The initial peak for all countries with the exception of Sweden had passed by May 2020.
- Secondary peaks were experienced by Sweden in June and the US in July 2020.
- Spain, Belgium, France, and the UK in that order experienced a significant secondary increase in cases starting in July through August 2020.
- Spain appears to have peaked the second time in September 2020. Belgium, France, and the UK continued to climb in October 2020.
- In terms of cumulative deaths/million population, Germany has by far the lowest trajectory. The next lowest country, France, has over 4 times Germany's number of deaths/million population.
- The leader in cumulative deaths/million population is Belgium, followed by the US and the UK running almost dead equal with the US just having overtaken the UK.
- Northern Europe:
- Iceland was the first country to experience a notable rise in daily cases.
- By the middle of April 2020, all countries apart from Sweden had experienced a peak in cases and passed the peak.
- Sweden continued to experience an increase in daily confirmed cases per million population until the end of May 2020.
- The different trajectory of Swedish cases presumably reflects the fact that it did not implement a lockdown and "masks were never required and aren't commonly worn". Sweden "managed to flatten its curve, prompting its health leadership to claim victory -- but others question the cost of the strategy, as the country has a far higher death toll than its Scandinavian neighbors." see https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/87812.
- The Swedish deaths as seen in the North European deaths chart above are seen to be over five times that of the next N European country, Denmark.
- It appears significant that though Sweden leads in confirmed deaths/million population in Northern Europe, it is below Spain the second lowest in Western Europe.