On Friday, European governments considered unpopular Covid restrictions, with the Netherlands opting for Western Europe's first partial lockdown of the winter, after EU experts claimed ten countries in the union were creating "extreme worry."

To combat a record increase in coronavirus infections, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed at least three weeks of lockdown measures targeting restaurants, stores, and athletic events.

The "annoying and far-reaching" measures were announced after the EU's diseases agency declared a "very high concern" Covid situation in ten of the EU's 27 member states, warning that the pandemic was spreading across the continent.

Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, and Slovenia were all designated as high-risk countries in the European Centre for Disease Control's weekly risk assessment.

Since its discovery in China in December of this year, the coronavirus has killed over five million people and wreaked havoc on economies all over the world.