Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – High-level experts of the World Health Organization will pay a visit to Central Asia. Director of the European Regional Bureau of the World Health Organization (WHO) Hans Kluge said this at a briefing for diplomats accredited in Copenhagen, Dunyo news agency reported citing the UN News Center.

In particular, it was noted that since the end of January, WHO has organized 8 high-level expert missions - to Italy, Spain (twice), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan. It is currently planned to organize a mission to the countries of Central Asia.

In general, the briefing focused on the situation with coronavirus in Europe. Hans Kluge noted that over the past 28 days, the total number of infections in the European region has more than tripled to 1.3 million people. This is 48 percent of all infections worldwide. Over the same period, the number of deaths in the region has increased by more than five times.

Of the ten countries reporting an increase in the number of new cases of coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, seven are in the European region. These are the Russian Federation, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Germany and France.

“The WHO regrets that so far more than 124 thousand people have already died because of this virus in the European region. The WHO European Region accounts for 63 percent of coronavirus deaths worldwide,” said the head of the WHO European Bureau.

Underscoring that the European region remains dominated by a pandemic, the representative of WHO called on all countries not to weaken the struggle.

According to a WHO spokesperson, the largest number of infections has been reported in Western Europe, but “the incidence curve is currently growing in countries in the eastern part of the region.”

He reiterated his call for caution in taking measures to remove the restrictions associated with the pandemic, taking into account WHO recommendations regarding the availability of all necessary criteria for such decisions.