Coronavirus cases top 30 million worldwide as WHO warns of ‘alarming’ spread in Europe
- World Health Organisation warns against shortening quarantine periods as region faces September Covid-19 surge
- Governments are battling to contain fresh spike in cases, while wanting to avoid inflicting fresh damage on their economies
Coronavirus infections topped 30 million around the globe on Thursday as the World Health Organisation warned of “alarming rates of transmission” across Europe and cautioned against shortening quarantine periods.
The WHO’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said a September surge “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us” after Europe set a new record last week, with some 54,000 cases recorded in 24 hours.
“Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region,” he told an online news conference from Copenhagen.
More than 30 million infections have been recorded and more than 940,000 people have died since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe accounts for 4.7 million of the total.
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Across Europe, governments are battling to contain the fresh spike in cases, while wanting to avoid inflicting fresh damage on their economies and imposing broad new restrictions on their virus-weary populations.
