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[12] 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.[2] Cases continued to decline to 13 deaths for the week ending 21 January 1564 before plague dissipated from the city.[3]