国际英语新闻:Spotlight: Europeans count economic toll, WHO warns of "unforgiving" virus

BRUSSELS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A slew of bleak new figures, unveiled Thursday by the European Union (EU) and some major nations, underscored the economic pain inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which added more pressure to European governments to ease restrictive measures.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe office, however, warned on Thursday that the European region "remains very much in the grip of this pandemic."

"As I have said before -- this virus is unforgiving -- we must remain vigilant, persevere and be patient, ready to ramp-up measures as and when needed," said WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge.

HUGE ECONOMIC TOLL

The economies of the euro area and the EU recorded significant contractions in the first quarter of 2020 (Q1), registering a 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent decrease year on year -- their sharpest decline since records began in 1995, said Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.

Eurostat said in a preliminary flash estimate on Thursday that economic output contracted by 3.8 percent in the euro area and by 3.5 percent in the EU compared with the previous quarter.

It estimated that 14.14 million people in the EU, of whom 12.16 million are in the euro area, were unemployed as of March, the final month of the period covered that saw COVID-19 containment measures widely introduced in Europe. Compared with February, the number increased by 241,000 in the EU and by 197,000 in the euro area.

In Italy, the region's worst-hit country in terms of death toll, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.8 percent year-on-year in Q1, according to National Statistics Institute (ISTAT). Compared with the previous quarter, its GDP decreased by 4.7 percent.

The economic contraction is one of the first figures to reflect the full impact of the country's COVID-19 lockdown, which entered into force on March 10.

Spain's GDP shrank by a record 5.2 percent in Q1, the biggest quarterly fall ever witnessed in the southern European country. It is twice as steep as the 2.6-percent fall in Q1 2009 when the country was in the depths of the last economic crisis, according to the Spanish Statistical Office (INE).

Spain imposed the State of Alarm on March 15 to halt the spread of COVID-19, which led to a suspension of all but essential economic activities. As a result, the construction and industrial sectors saw a decline of 8.1 and 5.6 percent, respectively, while the closure of hotels, bars and restaurants led to an 11.2-percent reduction in the service sector.

In France, its GDP contracted 5.8 percent in Q1, the deepest drop on a quarterly basis since the evaluations began in 1949, which the national statistics institute Insee said "primarily linked to the shutdown of 'non-essential' activities in the context of the implementation of the lockdown since mid-March."

For the whole year, the French government expected its economy to contract 8 percent, and budget deficit to hit 9 percent of the GDP, the highest level since 1945.

POSITIVE DAILY TRENDS

Despite the gloomy economic figures, there are some positive pandemic developments Thursday on the continent.

Italy recorded the highest daily number of COVID-19 recoveries since the start of outbreak in the country in late February. With 4,693 new recoveries, the country's total number rises to 75,945. It now has a total of 205,463 confirmed cases, with 27,967 deaths.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that the country is "past the peak" of the COVID-19 outbreak and "on the downward slope." The country now has a death toll of 26,711, more than that of Spain.

Spain, meanwhile, registered 268 new deaths on the day -- the lowest daily tally since March 20, taking the total number of victims to 24,543.

In neighboring France, the country reported 289 new deaths, the lowest increase on a weekday since the end of March, taking the tally to 24,376. Admissions in intensive care units (ICUs) dropped by 188 to 4,019, significantly lower from the peak of 7,200 reported on April 9.

And in Germany, the country registered 1,478 new confirmed cases over the past 24 hours, raising its total cases to 159,119, according to the its agency for disease control and prevention RKI.

Calling it "a pleasant development," RKI President Lothar Wielerm said the trend that the daily new cases between 1,000 and 1,500 continued, lower than last week. Meanwhile, the estimated number of recoveries in the country increased to 123,500, accounting for over 77 percent of the total cases.

STILL "IN GRIP" OF PANDEMIC

During a weekly press conference on COVID-19 broadcast online from Copenhagen, Hans Kluge warned that "COVID-19 is not going away any time soon."

"Today, the European Region accounts for 46 percent of cases and 63 percent of deaths globally. The region remains very much in the grip of this pandemic," said Kluge.

The region has reported 1,408,266 confirmed cases of infection, of which 129,344 have resulted in untimely deaths, according to Kluge.

Of the 44 countries in the European region that have implemented partial or full domestic movement restrictions, 21 countries have started easing some of these measures to different degrees, and a further 11 are planning to do so in the coming days, he said.

Kluge also addressed the prospect of a looming second wave of infections, which virologists suspect may strike in autumn.

"Our position has been that the key issue here is to work with what we call inter-waves. So we use the first wave to buy time to fight a second or a third wave, particularly if there is no vaccine or no equal access yet to the vaccine or any treatment."

For this "inter-wave" response, the WHO official stressed that dual-track health systems, which encompass the public and the private sectors, need to manage "repeated waves" of COVID-19 as well as the demand made on the health services for other infections.

"So the key issue is to be prepared, whether it is for a second wave or an older outbreak of the other infectious agents," he said.