Europe has seen a surge of COVID-19 cases since countries began easing restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the potentially fatal virus, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Iran on Thursday announced 134 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak past 10,000.

Governments and businesses are ramping up precautions as coronavirus case numbers rise to dire new levels in parts of the U.S. and around the world, potentially wiping out two months of progress.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it expected coronavirus cases to hit 10 million worldwide in the next week, as it warned the virus was yet to peak in the Americas.

Some of Britain's leading medical experts called Wednesday for a swift review into the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak to learn lessons before what they said was a "real risk" of a second wave this winter.

The number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus virus worldwide has surged past 475,000, according to an AFP tally from official sources at 0625 GMT on Wednesday.

Coronavirus infections are surging across large parts of the United States, the top US infectious disease expert has warned, as the death toll in Latin America passed 100,000.

U.S. disease expert Anthony Fauci told Congress Tuesday that Donald Trump never told him or other officials to curb coronavirus testing, essentially contradicting the president who told supporters he had urged such slowdown.

"None of us have ever been told to slow down on testing," Fauci told a House panel on U.S. efforts to mitigate the pandemic, adding that "in fact we will be doing more testing" instead of less.

Confidence in the Swedish authorities' ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic has fallen, a poll published on Tuesday showed, as the death toll has soared amid a highly-publicised light approach.

The entire district of Guetersloh in western Germany will be placed in lockdown after a coronavirus outbreak at a slaughterhouse, North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet said Tuesday.