Surge of coronavirus cases on the Continent

EUROPE recorded one million new coronavirus cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said among the hard-hit places is the Milan suburb of Bollate, where the virus swept through a nursery and an adjacent primary school with alarming speed. In a matter of days, 45 children and 14 staff members tested positive.

Genetic analysis confirmed it was the highly contagious variant first identified in England late last year.

Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said the spread of variants is driving the increase, but so is “the opening of society”.

The UK variant is spreading significantly in 27 European countries monitored by WHO and is dominant in at least 10 by the agency’s count: Britain, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Portugal.

In a separate development an infectious disease expert said vaccines need to be redesigned to prevent widespread transmission of coronavirus variants such as that first found in Manaus.

Professor Ravindra Gupta, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said it was “fantastic” that the mystery person in the UK infected with the Manaus variant had been found. He told Times Radio: “But there will be people out there who have not been tracked and traced who have the variant and who may have transmitted it.”

Prof Gupta said it is “always a possibility” that the Manaus P1 variant could become dominant in the UK but it is “unlikely at the moment because, first of all, we have low rates of transmission and we have a virus that has a transmission advantage”.