Ten EU nations causing 'high concern' over Covid

Ten countries in the 27-member European Union face a Covid situation of "high concern", the bloc's diseases agency said Friday, warning the pandemic was worsening across the continent.

 "The overall epidemiological situation... was characterised by a high and rapidly increasing overall case notification rate and a low but slowly increasing death rate," the European Centre for Disease Control said.

 "Case notification rates, death rates, and hospital and ICU admissions are all forecast to increase over the next two weeks."

 In its latest weekly risk assessment, the agency listed 10 EU countries in its highest category of concern -- Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.

 "Countries with lower vaccination uptake continue to be the most severely affected," said the agency.

 Germany was among 10 other EU nations classed as "high concern" and France among three of "moderate concern".

 Italy, Malta, Spain and Sweden were of low concern.

 The agency said four countries had been raised into a higher category since the last assessment, and five countries had been lowered.

 The number of cases and deaths is expected to increase by about 50 percent over the next two weeks, the agency added, reaching a weekly rate of 300 new cases and 2.7 deaths per 100,000 population.

 The assessment looks at the 27 EU nations as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.