WHO says Europe showing 'encouraging signs' as new coronavirus cases drop

The World Health Organisation’s European Office said on March 26 that it is witnessing “encouraging signs” as Italy recently reported a lower rate of infections of the new coronavirus. However, it further cautioned that it was too early to predict whether the worst phase of the pandemic in the country has passed or not. In a press conference, WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge noted that even now, the “situation remains very serious”.

“Italy, which has the highest number of cases in the region, has just seen a slightly lower rate of increase, though it is still too early to say that the pandemic is peaking in that country,” he added.

WHO Europe said that as of March 26, over 220,000 cases of the fatal virus have been reported in the continent and the fatalities have spiked to 11,987. This also means, that globally, approximately six out of every 10 cases and seven out of every 10 deaths have been reported from Europe.

Moreover, the coronavirus which originated in China in December 2019 has now claimed over 21,295 lives worldwide as of March 26. According to the tally by international news agency, the pandemic has now spread to 198 countries and has infected at least 471,464 people. Out of the total infections, 114,642 have been recovered but the easily spread virus is continuing to disrupt many lives. Major cities have been put under lockdown in almost all countries, and the economy is struggling. 

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US can be ‘new epicentre’ of COVID-19

The World Health Organisation has said on March 25 that the United States has the potential to become the new epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak due to a “very large acceleration in infections” in the country. While the life in China, where the COVID-19 had originated in December 2019 is slowly coming back to normalcy, the fatal COVID-19 has spread to over 190 countries and the US has reported 54,881 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 782 fatalities. 

The crisis due to the pandemic has prompted more governors to join states ordering all citizens to stay at home and practice social distancing. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris has told the reporters that over the past 24 hours, 85 per cent of the new cases worldwide were from Europe and the US and out of those, at least 40 per cent were just from the US.  However, the WHO spokesperson also lauded the improvements made in the country with more intensified testing among other efforts to isolate the sick and trace their immediate contacts exposed to the fatal COVID-19.

When she was further asked if the US can become the new epicentre, Harris replied that the United Nations health agency is now “seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the US. So it does have that potential. We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential”.

She added that the US has a “very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity”.

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