Fourth in world for new Covid cases

The UK was fourth in the world in terms of its number of Covid-19 cases last week, an expert has said.

The steep rise in cases across the UK means that Britain was only behind India, the US and Brazil in terms of its recent case numbers, a global health official said.

The UK reported 110,827 new cases to the World Health Organisation (WHO) last week, it said.

Dr Margaret Harris, from the WHO, told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme: "We are seeing very, very large outbreaks around the world - only last week India led the number of new cases, 504,000, followed by the US with 327,000 and then Brazil.

"But the United Kingdom is number four and what we are seeing is that, in Europe particularly, in more and more countries we're seeing a bigger change in the number of cases."

Asked how the UK compared with other European nations, Dr Harris said: "The UK recorded 110,827 to us last week and France reported 110,065 – you're essentially on parity with France at the moment. Russia also recorded a large number, as did Spain, but we're seeing upticks in many countries across Europe, particularly as I said in France and Spain, but also we've seen changes in Italy and more of the eastern European countries."

It comes as WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing: "Around the world, we're now seeing an increase in the number of reported cases of Covid-19, especially in Europe and the Americas.”