Europe has once again become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday, with some countries in the region reporting record numbers of cases and deaths, and public health officials warning of a deadly winter wave. “If we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” said Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, according to the New York Times.
The surge is especially pronounced in Eastern Europe, where vaccination rates remain low, and vaccine skepticism high. According to the Financial Times data journalist John Burn-Murdoch, Romania, Bulgaria, and Latvia have all recently set records for daily deaths. However, Western European countries with robust vaccination drives—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, for instance—are also seeing cases trend in the wrong direction.
The rise in cases comes as the United States is preparing to open its borders to fully vaccinated foreign visitors, the travel industry is expecting a robust return for international travel, and many would-be travelers are likely planning trips abroad. All of which means it’s best to be aware of local trends and the latest data. If you’re looking to track Europe’s COVID-19 situation in real-time, we’ve rounded up some resources below.
- ECDC: This page from the EU’s European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control includes a color-coded map, updated weekly, that shows each country’s test positivity rate. Find it here.
- New York Times COVID-19 Dashboard: This map remains one of the best tools for tracking infections and trends. Find it here.
- WHO COVID-19 Dashboard: This is a vital resource for global case tracking that breaks down trends by region. Europe is currently the only one of the six regions that is not on a downward trend. Find it here.
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