Reconfinements Thursday in England and Saturday in Greece, curfews in Italy and Cyprus: the World Health Organization (WHO) worries about an "explosion" of cases of Covid-19 in Europe, including the economy is weighed down by the pandemic.
Europe has been the epicenter of the epidemic in recent weeks - the region where the new coronavirus is spreading the fastest, and the one which, since Thursday, has had the most contamination, passing in front of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to an AFP count: more than 11.6 million cases, half of which are spread between Russia, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, and nearly 294,000 deaths.
Increasing mortality
"We are seeing an explosion" of contagions, with "only a few days for a million additional cases" in Europe, and "we are also gradually seeing mortality increase", underlined Hans Kluge, European director of the WHO, during of an interview with AFP.
According to the WHO, "with the widespread wearing of masks and tight control over gatherings, we can save more than 261,000 lives by February in Europe", but "the status quo is not an option".
However, "there is no reason to say that schools are one of the main vectors of transmission", assured Mr. Kluge, calling to keep them "open until the end, because we cannot not allow us a lost generation of Covid-19 ”.
