Coronavirus surge sweeping Europe powered by speedy variants

Europe saw a 9 per cent increase in new Covid-19 cases last week, with the so-called UK variant spreading significantly in 27 countries

The coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa is now present in 26 European countries, while the Brazilian variant has been detected in 15 countries

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Carabinieri officers patrol one of the main access roads to Bollate, on the outskirts of Milan, Italy. Europe recorded 1 million new Covid-19 cases last week, an increase of 9 per cent from the previous week and ending a six-week decline. Photo: AP

Published: 8:01pm, 6 Mar 2021Updated: 8:01pm, 6 Mar 2021

The virus swept through a nursery school and an adjacent junior school in the Milan suburb of Bollate with amazing speed. In a matter of just days, 45 children and 14 staff members had tested positive.

Genetic analysis confirmed what officials already suspected: The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in England was racing through the community, a densely packed city of nearly 40,000 with a chemical plant and Pirelli bicycle tire factory a 15-minute drive from the heart of Milan.

“This is the demonstration that the virus has a sort of intelligence, even if it is a single-cell organism. We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it adapts and penetrates them,’’ lamented Bollate Mayor Francesco Vassallo.

Bollate was the first city in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the epicentre in each of Italy’s three surges, to be sealed off from neighbours because of mutant versions that the World Health Organization says are now powering another uptick in infections across Europe. The variants also include versions first identified in South Africa and Brazil.

Europe recorded 1 million new Covid-19 cases last week, an increase of 9 per cent from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline, WHO said Thursday.