WHO says COVID-19 spread in Europe accelerating

Geneva: The World Health Organisation says there has been a “further acceleration” in the speed of COVID-19's spread in Europe, which was responsible for about half of the globe's new cases reported last week.

The UN health agency said in a weekly report published late Tuesday that European countries also recorded a 46% increase in deaths compared with the previous week. Although deaths also rose in the Americas, the rate of increase there was only 2%.

In Europe, France, Italy and the UK reported the highest numbers of new cases while Andorra, the Czech Republic and Belgium reported the highest rate per capita.