COVID digest: Europe is easing restrictions too ‘brutally’ — WHO

Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Britain, have eased their COVID-19 restrictions too “brutally,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

These nations are now also seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, most likely caused by the more transmissible BA2 omicron variant, the global health body added.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Europe fell sharply after a peak at the end of January, but has been on the rise again since early March, according to the WHO database.

Within the last week, WHO reported more than 5.1 million new cases and 12,496 deaths for its European region.