While health experts promise that we’re not living in March 2020 all over again — we have vaccines and other tools now — abrupt new restrictions in some countries are reminiscent of that era.

The Netherlands went into lockdown on Sunday, lasting through Jan. 14, 2022. The new rules urge “everyone [to] stay at home as much as possible,” set limits on the number of visitors a household can receive and limit groups outdoors to two people.

The country’s outbreak management team concluded that omicron would be the dominant variant in the Netherlands by the end of December — sooner than predicted. With an anticipated rise in hospitalizations, the health care system is expected to become overburdened in January, necessitating the lockdown, the government explained.

“The spread of the Omicron variant must be slowed as soon as possible in order to ensure healthcare services remain available to all,” the Dutch government said.

City streets in the Netherlands were largely deserted as the lockdown came into effect, Reuters reports, though police in Rotterdam used a water cannon to disperse a thousand soccer fans who had gathered for a match between Feyenoord and Ajax. (Bottles and fireworks had also been thrown at police and the Ajax team bus, according to local news reports.) No spectators have been permitted at Dutch soccer matches since November.

Sweden announced new travel rules starting Dec. 21 for its Nordic neighbors, requiring a vaccine certificate for travelers arriving from Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, according to The Local in Sweden. Travelers from those countries had previously been exempt from those entry rules, which were already in force for travelers from all other counties.

In Israel, Cabinet ministers added the United States and Canada to the its list of “red countries,” as well as adding Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey. A red status — which now includes 58 countries — means that Israeli citizens and permanent residents are banned from travel to those countries unless they get a special exemption and that all travelers from those countries, regardless of vaccination status, must complete a period of isolation.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced on Saturday a “major incident,” a status that means special coordination of government services and that hospital and emergency services may be strained. The virus is surging in Britain’s capital city, with 21,594 new cases reported there on Sunday.

“We face a tsunami of infections in the coming days and weeks,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid wrote over the weekend in The Telegraph. “Omicron spreads at a pace we have never seen before and has been doubling about every two to three days. Yesterday saw more than 90,000 new cases reported across the UK. We are extremely confident the number of infections – people with the disease but who have not been confirmed by a test – is significantly higher than that.”

The outbreak is spurring record levels of vaccinations in the United Kingdom.

France imposed tighter restrictions for travel between the U.K. and France, requiring “compelling reasons” for such travel — and tourism and business don’t qualify. Vaccinated people must also present a negative test result from within the previous 24 hours, aligning with the existing rule for unvaccinated travelers.

Japan closed its borders to all nonresident foreigners at the end of November.

In Germany, the government is considering new restrictions on social gatherings to begin Dec. 28, The Local in Germany reports. The rules could include limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people plus children, as well as the closure of indoor clubs and discos.

New rules in Switzerland dictate that only those who have been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 may go inside “restaurants, cultural, sporting and leisure venues and attend indoor events,” according to Switzerland’s national broadcaster.

The omicron surge is also behind a major postponement in the country: the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The 2022 event had been slated to take place Jan. 17 to 21.

“Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting,” the organization said in a statement. “Despite the meeting’s stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.”

The organization says it will reschedule the event for the summer of 2022. The 2021 event was also canceled.

Four million people and counting have signed a petition calling for a reduced prison sentence for Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, the semitruck driver behind a deadly 28-car pileup in Colorado in April 2019.

The truck slammed into a group of cars that were backed up in traffic on a stretch of Interstate 70 along the western edge of Denver, setting off a large fire and killing four people between the ages of 24 and 69. Aguilera-Mederos, a Cuban immigrant and Texas resident who was 23 at the time, survived the catastrophic crash with minor injuries.

Aguilera-Mederos has said that he lost control of the truck after its brakes failed, and tried to pull over to the shoulder to avoid stopped traffic but another semi had already stopped there. The crash happened as he passed one of the state’s runaway truck ramps.

As Colorado Public Radio reports, a jury found Aguilera-Mederos guilty in October of vehicular homicide and 23 other charges, including six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree, two counts of vehicular assault, one count of reckless driving and four counts of careless driving.

He was sentenced last week to the minimum available on all counts, to be served consecutively, totaling 110 years in prison.

Bruce Jones, the district court judge in the case, said that he did not believe Aguilera-Mederos deserved life in prison, that Colorado state law requires sentences for each count to be served consecutively instead of concurrently.

“If I had the discretion it would not be my sentence,” he said, according to CBS Denver.

The decision has sparked outrage over Colorado’s minimum sentencing laws, as well as calls for Aguilera-Mederos’ punishment to be reduced.

Millions of people have signed a petition asking the state to reduce his sentence

A Change.org petition asking Gov. Jared Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence or grant him clemency has already garnered more than 4.3 million signatures.

“Rogel has said several times that he wishes he had the courage to crash and take his own life that day, this tragic accident wasn’t done with Intent, it wasn’t a criminal act, it was an accident,” reads the petition, which was created three years ago and revived last week.

The petition says that Aguilera-Mederos has no criminal history, passed all of his drug and alcohol tests and “complied with every single request” by case investigators and the courts. It adds that he took responsibility for his actions and apologized to the victims’ families, at least one of which has said they wouldn’t have given him a lifetime sentence, according to CPR.

The petition also says that the trucking company he worked for should be held accountable, as it’s had several mechanical violations since 2017.

It doesn’t name the company, but local and national outlets have identified it as Houston-based Castellano 03 Trucking LLC. Citing records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Global Trade magazine reported in 2019 that 30 violations were reported out of 19 inspections over the course of two years, some of which were related to brakes.

When asked about the push to reduce Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence, a spokesperson for Polis told NPR over email that the governor’s office is “aware of this issue.”

“The Governor and his team review each clemency application individually and we welcome an application from Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos and will expedite consideration but have not received one yet at this time,” he added.

NPR has reached out to Aguilera-Mederos’ lawyer, James Colgan, for comment.

A civil rights group, a newspaper and a cohort of truckers are also speaking up

There are other efforts underway to draw attention to the case and try to shorten Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence.

Some truckers have said on social media that they will boycott Colorado during their routes.

Domingo Garcia, the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told ABC7 that the civil rights organization sent a letter to Polis on Aguilera-Mederos’ behalf, asking for a pardon or reduced sentence.

And the Denver Post published an editorial on Wednesday asking Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence and urging lawmakers to reform the state’s sentencing laws.

“The reason Jones did not have discretion is that lawmakers have set mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes, and then required that the sentences be served consecutively and not concurrently,” it wrote. “This case shows clearly that Colorado’s sentencing laws are in need of much more reform than the changes that have come in recent years.”

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog.