European countries set record COVID-19 daily numbers as Spain's total cases top 1 mln

MADRID/BRUSSELS - Countries in Europe saw their daily coronavirus infection numbers set new records yet again on Wednesday as Spain's total cases reached 1,005,295, becoming the first country in the European Union (EU) whose COVID-19 cases have topped one million.

In the past weeks, daily records of COVID-19 cases in many European countries have been smashed repeatedly as the continent took the brunt of surges in the second wave of the pandemic.

Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said late Tuesday that she tested positive for COVID-19. On Wednesday, German Health Minister Jens Spahn was reported to have tested positive.

Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Lithuania all reported on Wednesday their new records of daily cases since the novel coronavirus outbreak, while Germany has registered more than 50 coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a one-week period, the first time the country has breached its own critical limit for tackling the pandemic.

RECORDS SHATTERED

UK reported 26,688 daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday, its highest ever, taking the country's total cases to 789,229. Meanwhile, coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 191 to 44,158, according to official figures.

England's South Yorkshire, where the case rates of COVID-19 infections are among the highest in the country, from 285 to 402 people per 100,000 inhabitants, will move its local COVID-19 alert level to the top restriction level from Saturday, the British Department of Health and Social Care announced Wednesday.

Poland's daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases broke the 10,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday, standing at 10,040, with 130 deaths. The tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has risen to 202,579, while 3,851 people have died since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands kept climbing and reached a new daily record of 8,764 cases in a 24-hour span, bringing the country's total to 253,134, official data showed on Wednesday. Fifty-nine patients had died in the 24 hours, taking the country's toll to 6,873.

Another 105 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment in the 24 hours, raising the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital to 2,013. Of those hospitalized, 465 patients were in intensive care.

Austria reported its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 cases as a further 1,958 people tested positive in the past 24 hours. There are currently 960 people in hospital for coronavirus treatment, 147 of them in intensive care units.

Croatia and Slovenia also reported their new high of 1,424 and 1,504 new cases respectively in the past 24 hours.

"The virus is spreading dynamically throughout Europe," the Hungarian government's coronavirus information website stated while releasing the new figure of 1,423 COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, adding that the goal of the Hungarian government was to keep the country functioning and not let the virus paralyze everyday life.