The barrier of half a million deaths linked to Covid-19 was crossed this Wednesday in Europe.
According to the count by Agence France Presse, the EU recorded at noon a total of 501,531 deaths for 20,548,666 reported cases.
Despite this sad count, signs of improvement are currently to be reported on the epidemic level.
Over the week of February 3 to 9, 103,250 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded daily on average in the 27 countries of the block, or 16% less than over the previous seven days.
The average number of deaths stood at 3,137 recorded each day (-7%).
There is a similar trend across the wider Europe region, comprising 52 countries and territories.
Better especially in Spain and Sweden
Among the countries most affected by the pandemic, Spain is the one that has posted the largest decrease in new cases recorded daily on average over the last seven days (21,945, down 31%).
This figure rises to 9,120 for Germany (-20%), 19,348 for France (-7%) and 2,795 for Sweden (-4%).
In Italy, the situation remains stable with 12,012 cases recorded per day on average.
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In terms of deaths, Sweden recorded a sharp decrease with 53 deaths per day on average, 34% less than the previous week.
In Germany, this figure rose to 596 (-16%), in Italy to 380 (-9%) and in France to 416 (-7%).
Spain, on the other hand, saw this figure increase slightly (465, + 8%).
Outside the EU, the United Kingdom has seen the average number, over seven days, of its cases recorded daily decline by 27% to 17,075. The average number of deaths there decreased by 26% to 834 over the same period.
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These signs of hope must however be put into perspective.
What about the virus's response to the relaxation of restrictions?
And will vaccination play a decisive role in controlling the pandemic?
With 785,106 people who died of Covid-19, the European continent remains by far the most damaged area in the world, ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean (624,952) and the United States / Canada (489,091).
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Globally, the pandemic has killed at least 2,341,496 people since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from from official sources Wednesday at noon (French time).
More than 106,844,430 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed since the start of the epidemic, of which at least 65,255,700 are to date considered cured.