I think a good indicator of whether the strain is picking up is Ireland which recently has done a good job containing the virus but is close to UK and they closed traffic between them only recently i.e. too late. If you eyeball this Our World in Data chart (sorry, can’t embed pics im comments) you could guess that Ireland is about 10 days behind UK. For other countries like France or Germany, it is too early to say. I expect to see a clear signal (if there is one to be seen) by mid-January.
I think a good indicator of whether the strain is picking up is Ireland which recently has done a good job containing the virus but is close to UK and they closed traffic between them only recently i.e. too late. If you eyeball this Our World in Data chart (sorry, can’t embed pics im comments) you could guess that Ireland is about 10 days behind UK. For other countries like France or Germany, it is too early to say. I expect to see a clear signal (if there is one to be seen) by mid-January.