Europe's COVID cases showed more signs of rising last week, marking the first regionwide spike since the most recent BA.5 wave, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today in a weekly update.In the past, increasing cases in Europe have come ahead of similar rises in other regions, so trends in Europe are a closely watched global indicator.Seniors hit hardest in EuropeCases in people ages 65 and older rose 9% compared to the previous week, which the ECDC said was led by recent increases in 14 of 26 countries in the European Union that reported data.
Deaths continued a decreasing trend.Generally, hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) markers were stable in the region, but of 27 reporting countries, 14 noted an increasing trend.
The ECDC said the overall picture is that increasing transmission in the majority of countries is mainly affecting seniors, which is in turn impacting hospitals."Changes in population mixing following the summer break are likely to be the main driver of these increases, with no indication of changes in the distribution of circulating variants," the ECDC said.In the United Kingdom, most COVID indicators rose last week compared to the previous week, the Health Security Agency (HSA) said yesterday, pointing out that hospitalizations are highest in those ages 85 and older and that officials have seen a large spike in hospitalizations in those older than 80.Officials said the North East region had the highest hospital admission level and over the whole region, deaths remained stable.Mary Ramsay, MBBS, who directs the HSA's public health programs, said, "It is clear now that we are seeing an increase which could signal the start of the anticipated winter wave of