A visitor drinks mulled wine at the Christmas market on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 29, 2019. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

"Many people are talking about how they are going to celebrate Christmas. The medical and nursing staff won't get to celebrate much at all," he said, adding that with their behavior, the citizens are deciding "how things will go on in the intensive care units afterward."

To bid farewell to the outgoing year, French people love parties with friends or public countdown with fireworks. This winter, however, they are likely to celebrate with little fanfare and under fairly strict rules, as family and private gatherings are considered vectors of virus acceleration.

Davina Ensergueix, a 32-year-old jewelry saleswoman in Paris, got ready for the restrictions. "It's necessary to remain vigilant and make some sacrifices so that things will soon get better and we will find again our lives as before," she said.

Tough restrictions remain in place in Latvia through the winter holiday season, with all private parties and gatherings at home and outside banned, except for those held within a household.

Romanian citizens will spend Christmas under a national curfew, and in some badly-hit cities and towns, residents have to be under lockdown.

Bucharest authorities extended the state of alert for another 30 days last week to empower relevant departments to take measures. They asked residents to observe health regulations, wear face masks when leaving home, keep social distancing, and restrict night travel.

In addition, all kinds of public celebration for Christmas and New Year's Eve are prohibited. To protect the elderly from the virus, the authorities said it is best not to hold family gatherings this Christmas, and that children should avoid visiting their grandparents.

Travel ban, imposed by many European countries after Britain warned of a faster-spreading variant of coronavirus, came as another blow to Britons' Christmas plan.

France on Sunday shut a vital trade route between the two countries. Big supermarkets in Britain warned that the travel ban and subsequent delays at ports could see shortages of certain fresh foods, including lettuces and citrus fruits coming from the continent.

A man throws his child in the air during the Journey to Christmas festival in central Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 22, 2019. From Dec. 13, 2019 to Jan. 12, 2020, illuminated installations decorate the holiday season among streets and squares in Moscow. (Photo by Maxim Chernavsky/Xinhua)

Under the deal between Britain and France on Wednesday, those traveling for urgent reasons, including hauliers and British citizens with French residency, will be allowed into France, but they need to receive a negative test result less than 72 hours before departure.

All in all, it may be too late for some French and Dutch nationals living in Britain to secure tests in time to get home for Christmas.

VACCINE AS A RAY OF HOPE

Romania is set to start mass vaccination with many other European Union members on Sunday. President Klaus Iohannis expressed the hope that citizens will be vaccinated as much as possible, stressing that this is the only way to get rid of the pandemic.

"The situation will not change on its own, but we can change it by following the epidemiological safety rules," said Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, who welcomed the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is expected to become available to Latvia's medics before the end of this year.

In the eys of Contreras, the EAE professor, the public come to the end of the year exhausted. While many remained optimistic in March, the second wave has dampened their hope and the overall confidence.

"We trust that this situation will change with the arrival of vaccines," said Contreras.