European virus toll passes million

A top official from the World Health Organisation says Europe has surpassed a million deaths from Covid-19 and the situation remains “serious”, with about 1.6 million new cases reported each week there. The comments by Dr Hans Kluge yesterday aimed to emphasise that Europe must keep up its guard with social distancing and speed up vaccinations as virus variants drive new infections to record levels in some nations. Overall, a tally by Johns Hopkins University shows nearly three million deaths have been linked to Covid-19 worldwide. The United States, Brazil and Mexico have reported the highest number of deaths, more than 1.1 million in total.