Coronavirus deaths in Europe rose 10 percent in the first week of this month and made up over half of the 48,000 coronavirus deaths reported globally in that time, even as new cases and deaths dropped or remained stable in the rest of the world, according to World Health Organization figures released this week.
The highest number of deaths were recorded in Russia, which has reported record Covid death tolls in recent weeks, followed by Ukraine and Romania. The numbers of new infections were highest in Russia, Britain and Turkey, according to the W.H.O. figures.
Europe accounted for about two-thirds of the world’s 3.1 million new reported cases that week, the agency’s report said, with officials in countries like Germany weighing new restrictions to try to quell the outbreaks. Tens of thousands of new cases are being reported in Germany every day, its highest caseloads since the pandemic began, in a country where about 67 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against the virus.
The trend in Europe is at odds with the trajectory of other regions: The rate of new reported Covid deaths worldwide decreased 4 percent, according to the W.H.O., while the rate of new infections remained stable.
In total, over 249 million cases and more than five million Covid deaths have been reported since the pandemic began.
