The situation of the COVID-19 epidemic continues to deteriorate in the European Union (EU) and is considered “very worrying” in ten countries and “worrying” in ten others, the European agency in charge of diseases.
“The epidemiological situation in the EU is currently characterized by a rapid and significant increase in cases and a low but slowly rising death rate”, summarizes the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) in its latest risk assessment.
“Cases, hospitalizations and the number of deaths are all expected to increase over the next two weeks,” said the Stockholm-based European agency.
Among the 27, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary and Slovenia are in the highest concern category.
Countries in the “worrying” category include Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania and Slovakia.
Three countries are in the “moderate concern” category (France, Portugal, Cyprus) while four countries are in low concern (Italy, Spain, Sweden and Malta).
The method used by the ECDC for the categories of concern combines absolute values (number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths) and their recent evolution.
According to its latest projections, the numbers of cases and deaths are expected to increase by around 50% over the next two weeks, reaching a weekly rate of 300 new cases and 2.7 deaths per 100,000 population.
For the three other non-EU countries monitored by the agency (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), the situation is considered “worrying”.