Not 100% sure but it seems to me this latest wave spreads more easily which is why cases are spiking really high virtually everywhere, including countries that were doing quite well, all things considered, in previous wave.
That said, countries should have really had much more strict lockdowns enacted MUCH sooner then they did (when they had FAR LESS daily cases) because the economic cost of such lockdowns would be SMALLER than the cost of current measures due to them being in place for a MUCH SHORTER PERIOD, despite their cost being higher @ their beginning.
Here in Portugal, we had just over 1500 daily cases as the highest during 1st wave, but 2nd wave has had several days with over 6500 cases, though is now steadily falling (not fast enough, IMO). The highest daily fatalities we had in 1st wave was 35, twice IIRC: in the 2nd wave, we've reached 98 deaths in a day, last week.