The only Europe in which COVID’s death toll has risen last week: WHO | Coronavirus pandemic News

The UN health agency has warned that there could be an additional 500,000 COVID deaths by February if urgent measures are not taken on the continent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Europe has been the only region in the world where COVID-related deaths grew after a 5 per cent rise last week.

In its weekly report on the pandemic issued on Tuesday, the WHO also said cases had risen by 6 per cent worldwide, driven by the rise in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

The WHO said COVID-19 deaths in all non-European regions remained stable or fell last week, to a total of 50,000 worldwide.

Of the 3.3 million new infections reported, 2.1 million came from Europe, he said.

This was the seventh consecutive week that the COVID-19 case has been counted by the WHO in 61 countries in its European region, extending from Russia to Central Europe.

Although about 60 percent of people in Western Europe are fully immunized against COVID-19, only half of them are vaccinated in the eastern part of the continent, where officials are struggling to overcome the widespread doubt about the vaccine.

The WHO said infections have been declining since July in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

In Europe, the WHO said the largest number of new cases was in Russia, Germany and the UK. He noted that deaths rose by 67% in Norway and 38% in Slovakia.

The health agency had previously described Europe as the epicenter of an ongoing pandemic and warned that there could be an additional 500,000 deaths by February if urgent action is not taken on the continent.

Last week, Austria imposed drastic restrictions on the movement of unvaccinated people, the Netherlands and several other European countries reintroduced blockade measures, and the UK decided to extend booster doses to all over 40s.