Worrying trends of coronavirus infection are emerging in southern Europe and in the Balkan region, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme, said on Wednesday.

While certainly in western Europe the disease has come under control, we still have some worrying trends in southern Europe and the Balkans so we’re not out of the woods just yet in the European environment. It requires sustained vigilance, he said.

According to Ryan, the Americas is clearly still the major hot spot, North, Central and South America, the disease is beginning to accelerate in Africa.