Seven EU countries are of “high concern” because of rising virus death rates, with worrying trends in several other countries, the EU’s disease control agency warned on Thursday.
The seven have “an increased proportion of hospitalised and severe cases” among older people and “increasing or high death notification rates are already observed… or maybe observed soon”.
The countries outlined were Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Malta.
Other countries have observed rising infection rates primarily among younger people, who are less at risk of developing severe symptoms.
The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention singled out 13 European countries in this situation, including France and Britain.
