At least 14 European countries have reached a record number of hospitalizations linked to the new coronavirus this week, as the second wave of the pandemic hits the region, according to official data compiled and analyzed by AFP.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
Data on the number of hospital beds currently occupied by patients with COVID-19 are made available by 35 countries and territories out of the 52 in the Europe region, representing 470 million inhabitants (55% of the population) . Most countries of the European Union publish these data, with the exception of Germany, Sweden, Greece, Lithuania and Malta.
In the group of countries that have reached an unprecedented peak in hospital admissions in recent days, Poland (14,631 patients), the Czech Republic (6,604) and Belgium (5,924) are the countries with the most occupied beds.
Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Latvia, Iceland and Gibraltar follow, according to the latest reports available.
In relation to their population, the countries most affected are currently the Czech Republic, which records 62 patients per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Romania (57), Belgium (51) and Poland (39).
France (21,160), Spain (17,520), Ukraine (16,332) and Italy (15,964) are also in the lead in the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The trend is on the rise all over Europe. In total, more than 135,000 Covid-19 patients are currently being treated in the 35 countries studied, compared to less than 100,000 a week ago.
The countries with the strongest growth compared to last week are Serbia (+ 97%), Belgium (+ 81%), Austria (+ 69%) and Italy (+ 65%) among those with at least 200 occupied beds.
Only Montenegro shows a decrease (-16%), after a peak 10 days ago.
France, if it has not yet reached its level of hospitalizations in April (32,131 people on April 14), also sees the number of people hospitalized increasing very quickly (+ 50% in one week, for a total of 21 160 to October 29).
List of 35 countries and territories for which AFP was able to compile and analyze data: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Romania, United Kingdom, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Vatican.