EUROPE FACING START OF 3RD WAVE OF CORONAVIRUS

Fri 26 March 2021:

The European Union is currently at the start of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

“We are at the start of the third wave in Europe, and in many European member states infections are on the rise again, mostly due to the variant B117,” von der Leyen said at a press conference following the EU summit on late Thursday.

WHO said the latest data on coronavirus variants of concern, indicated that the so-called “UK” strain is present in 125 countries, across all six global regions.

Europe and the Americas continued to account for nearly eight in 10 of all cases and deaths, while the only region to report a decline in fatalities was the Western Pacific, down nearly a third, compared to the previous week.

Infections rose notably in South East Asia, the Western Pacific, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Weekly Epidemiological Update.

In the African region and the Americas, infection numbers have remained stable in recent weeks, although WHO pointed to “concerning trends” in some countries within these regions.