The current epicenter of the covid-19 pandemic, Europe has passed the milestone of 100 million cases since the discovery of the new coronavirus in December 2019, according to a France-Presse (AFP) tally conducted at 6:45 p.m. in Lisbon.
This figure represents more than a third of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections worldwide. The 100,074,753 cases detected in the European Region (52 countries and territories stretching from the Atlantic coast to Azerbaijan and Russia) account for more than a third of the 288,279,803 cases identified worldwide since the start of the pandemic.
More than 4.9 million infections have been reported in the past seven days (a 59% increase over the previous week), so the region is currently facing unprecedented infection rates. Excluding the smallest countries, the ten countries with the highest incidence (cases in the past seven days per 100,000 inhabitants) are European, starting with Denmark (incidence 2045), Cyprus (1969) and Ireland (1964).
In France, more than one million cases (1,103,555) have been detected in the past seven days, almost 10% of the total number of infections reported in the country since the start of the pandemic.
Among the 52 countries and territories that make up Europe, 17 of them have broken the record for the number of identified for the week in recent days.
The values provided by AFP are based on reports submitted daily by the health authorities of each country.
A significant proportion of less severe or asymptomatic cases remain undetected despite increased screening in many countries since the start of the pandemic following the detection of the virus in late 2019. In addition, screening and testing policies differ from country to country.
The acceleration in the spread of infections has not yet been accompanied by an increase in mortality on the European continent. On average, over the past seven days, Europe recorded an average of 3,413 deaths per day, down 7% from the previous week. At its most, this number averaged 5,735 deaths per day across the continent in January 2021.
The European population is slightly more vaccinated than the world average. About 65% of Europeans are at least partially vaccinated, of which 61% have a full vaccination schedule against 58% and 49% of the world’s population, respectively, according to data compiled by Our World in Data.
