London, Europe Brief News – Coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally.
Super-infectious relatives of the Omicron variant have been driving the new wave of disease across the continent, with repeated infections potentially leading to long COVID.
Although intensive care admissions have remained low, the United Nations’ health agency said on Tuesday hospitalisation rates had doubled.
“With rising cases, we’re also seeing a rise in hospitalisations, which are only set to increase further in the autumn and winter months,” Hans Kluge, WHO’s Europe director, said in a statement.
“This forecast presents a huge challenge to the health workforce in country after country, already under enormous pressure dealing with unrelenting crises since 2020,” he added.
The 53 countries in the agency’s European region, which stretches to Central Asia, reported nearly three million new coronavirus infections last week, with the virus killing about 3,000 people every week.
Globally, COVID-19 cases have increased for the past five weeks, even as countries scaled back on testing.
