WHO blames rising Covid cases in Europe on curbs lifted too soon

People sit outside at a cafe in Berlin. Most pandemic controls were lifted in Germany’s ‘Freedom Day’ on Sunday. Photograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Several European countries lifted their coronavirus restrictions too soon, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, and as a result are now witnessing sharp rises in infections probably linked to the new, more transmissible BA2 subvariant.

Hans Kluge, director of the WHO’s Europe region, said countries including Germany, France, Italy and Britain had lifted their Covid curbs “brutally – from too much to too few”. Infections are rising in 18 out of the region’s 53 countries, he said.