The World Health Organization has warned of “alarming” transmission rates of Covid-19 in Europe, saying weekly reported cases were now higher than during the pandemic’s peak and “a very serious situation” was unfolding across the continent.
As France’s health minister warned of a “worrying rise” in intensive care admissions in some parts of the country and authorities from Madrid to Dublin weighed their next steps, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said last week’s seven-day tally of new cases on the continent was 305,054, against 264,675 in the week of 30 March.
More than half of European countries had reported increases of 10 percentage points or more during the past fortnight, Kluge said on Thursday – while in seven, new infections had more than doubled over the same 14-day period.
“In the spring and early summer, we saw the impact of strict lockdown measures,” he said. “Our efforts, our sacrifices, paid off. In June, cases hit an…
