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BFF-24
HEALTH-VIRUS-EUROPE-WHO
Covid cases rising again in Europe: WHO
COPENHAGEN, March 4, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The number of new coronavirus cases
has risen in Europe after six weeks of decline, the World Health Organization
said on Thursday.
“Last week, new cases of COVID-19 in Europe rose nine percent to just above
one million. This brought a promising six-week decline in new cases to an
end, with more than half of our region seeing increasing numbers of new
infections,” WHO Europe’s regional director Hans Kluge told a news
conference.
“We are seeing a resurgence in central and Eastern Europe. New cases are
also on the rise in several western European countries where rates were
already high,” he said.
“We need to get back to the basics. We need to enlarge” the vaccine
portfolio, he said.
WHO’s Europe region comprises 53 nations and vaccination drives have begun
in 45.
According to an AFP tally based on official numbers, 2.6 percent of the
European Union’s population have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines and
5.4 percent have got one dose.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1751 hrs