The World Health Organisation has reported that Europe is the only region in the world that recorded an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths during the first week of November, while other regions have recorded declines or stable trends.
This is the sixth week in a row that coronavirus cases have increased across Europe.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN health agency said there were about 3.1 million new cases globally, about a 1 per cent increase from the previous week. Nearly two-thirds of the coronavirus infections — 1.9 million — were in Europe, where cases rose by 7 per cent while the number of deaths rose by 10%.
The countries with the highest numbers of new cases worldwide were the United States, Russia, Britain, Turkey and Germany. The number of weekly Covid-19 deaths fell by about 4 per cent worldwide and declined in every region except Europe.
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Out of the 61 countries WHO includes in its European region, which includes Russia and stretches to Central Asia, 42 per cent reported a jump in cases of at least 10 per cent in the last week.
In the Americas, WHO said that new weekly cases fell by 5 per cent and deaths declined by 14 per cent, with the highest numbers reported from the United States.
Interestingly, in Southeast Asia and Africa, Covid-19 deaths declined by about a third, despite the lack of vaccines in these regions.
The WHO has urged countries not to administer more booster doses until at least the end of the year so that more vaccines are available for poor countries where the inoculation rates are lagging far behind. However, most advanced countries have ignored the request and are going in for the third dose.
WHO's Europe director, Dr Hans Kluge, said last week that Europe was once again “back at the epicentre of the pandemic.” He warned that if more actions weren't taken to stop Covid-19, the region could see another 500,000 deaths by February.
As of 7 November, over 249 million confirmed cases and over 5 million deaths have been reported.
