It is normal during plague outbreaks for the disease to subside or break in a community during the winter months, as rats and their fleas retreat from snow and their resources thin out. By 2 December deaths had fallen to 178 per week and the Common Council released an order that none of the houses where plague patients had been can be rented out. Cases continued to decline to 13 deaths for the week ending 21 January 1564 before plague dissipated from the city.
