Coronavirus Europe: Italy passes 1 million cases, France overtakes Russia
- France is now the worst-hit country in Europe, with 1.8 million infections, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was hospitalised for Covid-19
- Britain becomes the fifth country in the world to record more than 50,000 coronavirus-related deaths
France, meanwhile, overtook Russia as the world’s fourth-worst affected country. It reported 35,879 new coronavirus cases, taking its total to 1.86 million.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was hospitalised after he contracted Covid-19 earlier this week, according to local media on Thursday.
More than 300,000 people have died of Covid-19 across Europe, and authorities fear that fatalities and infections will continue to rise as the region heads into winter despite hopes for a new vaccine.
With just 10 per cent of the world’s population, Europe accounts for almost a quarter of the 1.2 million deaths globally, and even its well-equipped hospitals are feeling the strain. More than 52 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally.
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India, with the second most Covid-19 infections globally, sees a downward trend
The Italian health ministry said the country had registered 32,961 new cases over the past 24 hours, taking its total tally since the contagion first struck in February to 1.028 million.
