Close to 2 million coronavirus cases were reported last week in Europe — the “most in a single week in that region since the pandemic started,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said during a Friday news briefing. At the same time, the continent reported almost 27,000 deaths — a figure that represents over half of the world’s covid-related deaths last week, he said…

“It’s another reminder, as we have said again and again, that vaccines do not replace the need for other covid-19 precautions,” Tedros said. “Vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization, severe disease and death. But they do not fully prevent coronavirus transmission.”

The result has been countries returning to some of the restrictions seen in the pandemic’s early days.

Austria’s government said Friday that it would meet this weekend discuss lockdown measures for unvaccinated individuals. The Netherlands — which saw an unprecedented 33 percent increase in cases over the week — announced Western Europe’s first partial lockdown of this winter, with three weeks of restrictions for shops, sports activities and dining that apply to all people, regardless of their vaccination status, the BBC reported.