As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Europe near one million, countries should be cautious when considering easing lockdowns, the World Health Organization has warned on Thursday.
Speaking at an online briefing, WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said that in the past ten days the number of coronavirus cases reported in Europe has nearly doubled to close to one million, meaning that about half of the global burden of the COVID-19 pandemic is in Europe.
‘‘The storm clouds of this pandemic still hang heavily over the European region,‘‘ he said.
Europe is the hardest-hit continent by the coronavirus outbreak, recording 957,551 coronavirus cases and 91,978 deaths as of April 17, according to a tally by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The countries with the highest number of coronavirus-related fatalities are Italy with 22,172, Spain with 19,130, France with 17,920, United Kingdom with 13,729 and Belgium with 4,857 deaths.
Since the emergence of the COVID-19, more than two million people have been infected with the disease worldwide, and over 145,000 have died.
While several countries have already announced plans to start lifting coronavirus lockdowns, including Germany, Denmark, Spain, the WHO’s regional director said it was critical to understand the complexity and uncertainty of such transitioning.
‘‘People are rightly asking: How much do we have to endure? And for how long? In response, we, governments, and health authorities must come up with answers to identify when, under what conditions and how we can consider a safe transition,‘‘ he noted.
Kluge said that before taking any steps to ease lockdown measures, countries should first ensure, among others, that virus transmission is under control, outbreak risks are minimised and that health systems have the capacity to identify, test, trace and isolate COVID-19 cases.
‘‘We remain in the eye of the storm,’’ he warned, adding that the next few weeks will be ‘‘critical’’ for Europe.
