Coronavirus latest: Europe in the eye of pandemic storm as cases near 1 million
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“Case numbers across the region continue to climb. In the past 10 days, the number of cases reported in Europe has nearly doubled to close to 1 million,” the WHO’s European director, Hans Kluge, told reporters in an online briefing.
This meant that about 50 per cent of the global burden of Covid-19 was in Europe, Kluge said. More than 84,000 people in Europe have died in the epidemic, he said.
“The storm clouds of this pandemic still hang heavily over the European region,” Kluge said.
As some countries start to consider whether restrictions may be eased and whether schools and some workplaces might start to reopen, he said it was critical to understand the complexity and uncertainty of such transitioning.
Companies and politicians across the world are worried about the economic impact of a long shutdown, and some countries in Europe - such as Germany, Denmark, Spain and others - are beginning to think about how to ease some societal restrictions.