Young people ‘letting down their guard’ are driving a resurgence of coronavirus infections in the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organization has warned.
There have been concerns in the last few days about a fresh wave of cases across parts of Europe, including Spain and Belgium, leading countries including the UK to re-impose some restrictions on travel.
While addressing newsmen via a virtual press conference in Geneva, Director General of the organization Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there is evidence to suggest that this resurgence has been driven by young people enjoying the summer. “We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: young people are not invincible,” the director general warned.
According to trtworld.com, Britain reported 846 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily number in over a month, official data showed. The data, published on the government’s website, showed the daily total was last higher on June 28, when 901 new cases were recorded.
France confirmed nearly 1,400 new Covid-19 cases for the second day running on Thursday, a level unseen since the end of June, while the country’s hospitals reported a rise in the number of people in intensive care for the first time in 16 weeks.
“The virus circulation is sustained with new daily cases increasing by more than 1,000 … Swift and sweeping efforts are necessary,” health authorities said in a statement. An additional 1,377 cases of the virus were reported, bringing the moving 7-day average above the 1,000 threshold for the first time since the first half of May, when France eased its lockdown, and the overall total to 186,573.
Health authorities said 381 people were in intensive care units (ICUs) due to the disease, up by only one compared with 24 hours earlier but the first time that figure has increased on a daily basis in 16 weeks.
At the peak of the pandemic, early April, there were more than 7,000 people in ICUs being treated for coronavirus. The number of patients hospitalised for the disease declined by 75, to 5,375, continuing a more than two-month downward trend. There were 16 new deaths from the disease, taking the total to 30,254. Temperatures soared across Europe on Thursday, heading above 40 Celsius in places, adding extreme heat to the health warnings of a continent already taking fresh measures to rein in a potential second wave of coronavirus infections.
The heat undoubtedly made it more difficult to wear face masks in the Spanish capital. Spain’s meteorological agency said the hot air was coming from Africa and would last until Saturday. Turkey confirmed 982 more recoveries from Covid-19, bringing the total tally to 213,539, according to the country’s health minister.
Citing Health Ministry data, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that a total of 967 people contracted the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which pushed the overall count to 229,891. The country’s death toll from coronavirus rose to 5,674 with 15 new fatalities reported in the past day.
