COVID surge reaches critical level in 33 European countries

"The epidemiological picture across the 53 countries it monitors 'is mixed' with a "greater than 10% increase in 14-day case incidence," Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO Europe, told reporters.

Kluge said that "several countries are starting to observe an increased burden on hospitals" and that "a particularly steep increase in cases" is observed in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Central Asian countries.

The last week also saw an "11% increase in the number of deaths in the region."

So far, the region has recorded more than 64 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths. A projection that a further 236,000 people could lose their lives to the pandemic across Europe by December 1 — issued last week by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) — was described as "reliable" by Kluge on Monday.