Europe’s death toll passes one million but infections ‘slowing’

EUROPE has surpassed one million deaths from Covid-19 and the situation remains “serious”, with about 1.6 million new cases reported each week, according to a top official from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Addressing recent concerns about vaccines, Dr Hans Kluge also said the risk of people suffering blood clots is far higher for people with Covid-19 than people who receive Astrazeneca’s coronavirus vaccine.

Europe’s tragic milestone came as France’s coronavirus death toll was expected to pass 100,000 yesterday.

The country of 67 million will be the eighth in the world to reach the symbolic mark, and the third in Europe after the United Kingdom and Italy.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Greece, Dr Kluge did point to “early signs that transmission may be slowing across several countries” and cited “declining incidence” among the oldest people.

He said the proportion of Covid-19 deaths among people over 80, who have been prioritised for vaccines, had dropped to nearly 30 per cent – the lowest level in the pandemic. “For now, the risk of suffering blood clots is much higher for someone with Covid-19 than for someone who has taken the Astrazeneca vaccine,” he said.

“Let there be no doubt about it, the Astrazeneca vaccine is effective in reducing Covid-19 hospitalisation and preventing deaths,” he added.

In France, the cumulative death toll since the start of the epidemic totalled 99,777 on Wednesday evening.

In recent days, French health authorities have been reporting about 300 new daily deaths from Covid-19.

Lionel Petitpas, president of the association Victims of Covid-19, said that the number of 100,000 deaths is “an important threshold”. After months of people getting accustomed to the virus, the figure “is piercing a lot of minds. It is a figure we thought would never be reached,” he said.

Mr Petitpas, who lost his wife, Joelle, on March 29 last year to the virus, said families of victims “want the government to make a collective gesture to recognise our collective loss”. French president Emmanuel

Macron told Le Parisien newspaper he thinks about all of the people who died in the pandemic and their families.

The pandemic was “so cruel” to individuals “who sometimes were not able to accompany, during the last moments and in death, a father, a mother, a loved one, a friend”, Mr Macron said. Yet the crisis also shows “the ability of the French people to get united”, he added.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal suggested it is too soon to set a specific date to honour those who died as the country is now fighting another rapid rise in confirmed cases.

“There will be an homage for sure, a national mourning for the victims of Covid-19,” Mr Attal said. “That time will come. Today, we throw all our forces in the battle against the epidemic.”

Experts say the 100,000 mark is an under-estimate, by at least several thousands. Analysis of death certificates shows that some Covid-19 cases are not reported when people die at home or in places such as psychiatric units and chronic care facilities.

Meanwhile, India has reported more than 200,000 new Covid cases in one day, rocketing past 14 million overall as an intensifying outbreak puts a weight on its fragile health care system.

In the capital New Delhi more than a dozen hotels and wedding banquet halls were ordered to be converted into Covid-19 centres attached to hospitals.

Restrictions imposed by worst-hit Maharashtra state on Wednesday night closed most industries, businesses and public places, and limits the movement of people for 15 days.

In recent days, migrant workers hauling backpacks have swarmed overcrowded trains leaving Mumbai, an exodus among panic-stricken day labourers. In addition to the 200,739 new cases of infection, the Health Ministry also reported 1,038 fatalities from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking deaths to 173,123 since the pandemic started last year.

India’s total cases are second behind the United States and its deaths are fourth behind the US, Brazil and Mexico. The actual numbers may be much higher with limited testing among India’s nearly 1.4 billion people.

It is a figure we thought would never be reached