London: Europe is in eye of the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of cases nearing a million, and should move with extreme caution when considering easing lockdowns, the World Health Organization's regional director said on Thursday.
"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% 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.
Kluge said the WHO recognised that social distancing policies designed to slow the spread of the virus "are affecting lives and livelihoods".
"People are rightly asking: How much do we have to endure? And for how long? In response, we, governments, and health authorities must come up with answers to identify when, under what conditions and how we can consider a safe transition."
Any step to lift lockdown measures must firstly ensure several key things, he said, including that evidence shows a country's COVID-19 transmission is being controlled, outbreak risks are minimised, and that health systems have the capacity to identify, test, trace and isolate COVID-19 cases.
"We remain in the eye of the storm...If you cannot ensure these criteria are in place before easing restrictions, I urge you to re-think," he said, adding: "There is no fast track back to normal."
Spain's death toll rises to 19,130
The total number of people who have died from the coronavirus in Spain rose to 19,130, the Spanish health ministry said on Thursday.
Over the past 24 hours, 551 people died from COVID-19 up from 523 the previous day, the ministry said.
The overall number of cases of those infected in the country rose to 182,816, from 177,633 on Wednesday.
US coronavirus deaths rose above 31,000 on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as President Donald Trump prepares to announce guidelines for reopening the economy.
The United States is the world's worst-affected country with fatalities doubling in just a week and setting a record single-day increase for two days in a row.
The governors of Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania began cautiously preparing Americans for a post-virus life where residents wear face masks as they emerge from isolation in the coming weeks.
The US shutdown has crushed the nation's economy to levels not seen since the Great Depression nearly a century ago as more than 20 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits amid shuttered stores and restaurants.
US cases totaled over 635,000 and rose by 30,000 on Wednesday, the biggest increase in five days, according to the Reuters tally.
More than 2 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 136,667 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
COVID-19, which stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019, is the name of the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Coronavirus family with crown-shaped spikes on its surfaces. The name of the disease was given by the World Health Organisation.
