PARIS, Nov 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of coronavirus infections in Europe climbed past 15 million on Tuesday.
The continent is the worst-hit region in the world, ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean which together have recorded 12.1 million cases and Asia with 11.5 million.
Globally more than 55 million Covid-19 infections have been registered since the pandemic began early in the year.
The number of infections, over the past six months, has grown by 10 times as the continent in northern hemisphere had crossed 1.5 million cases back in May.
Europe has been left battered with what experts have described as a “second wave” of the pandemic.
The virus, after being largely controlled in the continent, struck back with the onset of Winter. The dry weather, combined with the lack of travel restrictions till earlier this month, led to a rapid transmission of the disease.
Western and Central Europe is the most severely affected, as compared to the eastern part of the continent. The Nordic countries have also reported fewer cases vis-a-vis other regions — which experts attribute to the lack of density in the population.
The worst affected due to the second phase of pandemic is France, where the COVID-19 case count has crossed 1.9 million. The country has also reported more than 45,000 deaths so far.
Spain and UK have reported 1.53 million and 1.39 million cases so far, whereas, the total count in Italy has peaked to 1.23 million.
In Germany, over 828,000 cases have been recorded, followed by 752,940 cases in Poland, 537,871 infections in Belgium and 373,474 in Romania.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed “extreme concern” over the spike of cases in Europe. Citing the example of second wave in the continent, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned other nations against rapidly lowering their guards.
“Right now we are extremely concerned by the surge in cases we’re seeing in some countries. Particularly in Europe and the Americas, health workers and health systems are being pushed to the breaking point,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
