Geneva: The World Health Organization's chief for Europe has warned COVID-19 is a tornado with a long tail and says increased case counts among young people could ultimately passed on to more vulnerable older people and cause an uptick in deaths.
Dr. Hans Kluge said younger people are likely to come into closer contact with the elderly as the weather cools in Europe.
We don't want to do unnecessary predictions, but this is definitely one of the options: That at one point there would be more hospitalizations and an uptick in mortality, he told reporters from Copenhagen, the WHO Europe headquarters.
Kluge said 32 out of 55 state parties and territories in WHO's European region have seen a 14-day incidence rate increase of more than 10 per cent, calling that definitely an uptick which is generalized in Europe.
But he also suggested health authorities and other officials are better positioned and more prepared than in February, when the continent was on the cusp of a huge surge in cases and deaths.
The overall number of global Coronavirus cases has surpassed the 24 million mark, while the deaths have increased to over 824,000, according to the Johns Hopkins
University.
As of Thursday morning, the total number of cases stood at 24,085,646 and the fatalities rose to 824,368, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.
The US accounted for the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 5,821,195 and 179,708 respectively, according to the CSSE. Brazil came in the second place with 3,717,156 infections and 117,665 deaths.
In terms of cases, India ranks third (3,234,474), and is followed by Russia (968,297), South Africa (615,701), Peru (607,382), Mexico (573,888), Colombia (562,113), Spain (419,849), Chile (402,365), Argentina (370,188), Iran (365,606), the UK (330,934), Saudi Arabia (310,836), Bangladesh (302,147), Pakistan (294,193), France (291,374), Italy (262,540), Turkey (262,507), Germany (239,010), Iraq (215,784), Philippines (202,361), Indonesia (160,165), Canada (128,380), Qatar (117,742), Ukraine (112,650), Bolivia (110,999), Ecuador (110,549), Israel (108,403) and Kazakhstan (105,075), the CSSE figures showed.
The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the Mexico (62,076), India (59,449), UK (41,552), Italy (35,458), France (30,549), Spain (28,971), Peru (28,001), Iran (21,020), Colombia (17,889), Russia (16,638), South Africa (13,502) and Chile (10,916).