The World Health Organization’s European office says that the soaring number of Covid-19 cases in Europe has caused “great concern”, but said the situation was still better than the peaks in April. “The evolving epidemiological situation in Europe raises great concern. Daily numbers of cases are up, hospital admissions are up,” the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told a press conference. “Covid is now the fifth leading cause of deaths and the bar of a 1,000 deaths per day has now been reached.” More European countries have decided to reimpose nationwide lockdown measures to counter fast-rising coronavirus infection rates. Northern Ireland announced Wednesday that it would become the first among the United Kingdom’s four nations to try a so-called circuit breaker lockdown. The tactic will see pubs and restaurants closed for all but takeout service, all schools closed and many other businesses greatly restricted for a short, defined period to try and break the cycle of spiraling infections.