WHO:
Europe largest contributor to new Covid-19 deaths in past week

Europe remained the biggest global contributor to new Covid-19 cases and deaths in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Iran Press/Europe: The European region accounted for 44% of global new cases and 49% of global new deaths in the past week, according to the latest weekly WHO report, released Tuesday.

While the number of new cases in the region is declining on a weekly basis, the number of deaths is still rising, with 32,684 new fatalities reported in the previous seven days. This update comes as countries across the continent grapple with how to allow people to celebrate upcoming holidays, including Christmas, and mitigate the economic pain to businesses while countering the pandemic.

France and the United Kingdom both set out plans Tuesday for the coming weeks based on falling infection rates following lockdown measures.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, on Wednesday called on EU leaders not to relax their coronavirus restrictions too quickly.

Globally, over 61,308,613 people have been infected while 1,437,840 have succumbed to the virus. Also, 42,396,651 people have recovered so far.

101/216

Read more:

Europe suffers record COVID-19 numbers