‘Wake-up call’ as cases pass March peak
Rates of coronavirus transmission have reached alarming levels in Europe and should be a ‘‘wake-up call’’, the World Health Organisation says.
‘‘We have a very serious situation unfolding before us,’’ Hans Kluge, its regional director for Europe, said. ‘‘Weekly cases have now exceeded those reported when the pandemic first peaked in Europe in March.’’
They ‘‘should serve as a wake-up call for all of us’’, he said, adding: ‘‘Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region.
‘‘More than half of European countries have reported a greater than 10 per cent increase in cases in the past two weeks. Of those, seven countries have seen newly reported cases increase more than twofold in the same period.’’
So far the death toll from rising infections has been much lower than it was in spring and early summer when the virus hit Europe, but the WHO says that this could change over autumn and winter.
This week the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that 14-day case notification rate (the number of newly reported cases) for the EU, European Economic Area and the UK ‘‘has been increasing for more than 50 days, with over half of all EU countries currently experiencing an increase in cases’’.
Today Spain, which has 614,360 confirmed coronavirus cases, the most in Europe according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University, is expected to announce targeted lockdowns in areas where the virus is spreading rapidly, and renewed restrictions on movement.
In France the number of new daily cases reported on Thursday, 9784, was just below an all-time record of 10,561 new cases recorded on Sunday and the number of people being treated in intensive care for Covid-19 also rose for the 20th day on Thursday to a three-month high of 803.
The WHO said that it was sticking to its guidance calling for a 14-day quarantine period for anyone exposed to the virus, challenging decisions by a number of countries to reduce the period.
France has cut the recommended length for self-isolation to seven days. In the UK and Ireland it is ten days and several other countries are considering reducing their recommendations.
Kluge said: ‘‘Knowing the immense individual and societal impact even a slight reduction in the length of quarantine can have ... I encourage countries of the region to make scientific due process with their experts and explore safe reduction options.’’
The 53 member states of WHO Europe have recorded nearly five million cases of Covid-19 and more than 227,000 related deaths, according to its figures. The number of daily cases is between 40,000 and 50,000, compared with a daily peak of 43,000 on April 1, although testing in many countries has increased considerably.
In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control recorded 2194 new infections yesterday, the most since April.
Christian Drosten, a virologist, said that the trend was pointing upwards, unlike last month when the infection rate was volatile and was boosted by returning holidaymakers who did not go on to infect many others. He told a conference that the newly reported figures stemmed from undiscovered clusters in Germany that may have been caused by family gatherings, for example. ‘‘This means that we have to adapt to the fact that what we are seeing is the beginning of an increase in incidence, which must be controlled at some point,’’ he said.
He added that the situation was not comparable with the end of March, when more than 6000 cases per day were being discovered with a far lower number of tests.
At present, the country carries out more than a million tests per week and has capacity for 1.4 million.
Health officials said that the number of infections among older people had started increasing since last week, a development that needed to be watched.
In summer most infections were among younger people who had milder symptoms.
Munich has abandoned a plan to allow 7500 football fans to attend today’s opening match of the Bundesliga season between Bayern Munich and Schalke 04. Dieter Reiter, the mayor, said that allowing fans in would send the ‘‘wrong signal’’ after the city reported 151 new infections yesterday.
This week federal states agreed a six-week trial during which up to 20 per cent of stadium capacity could be used. Spectators had been banned since the Bundesliga resumed in May.