Some parts of Europe are seeing a worrying rises in new coronavirus infections as authorities grapple with outbreaks and the spread of more infectious variants of the virus.

It has prompted fears of a “third wave” of Covid cases, despite the number of new coronavirus infections falling dramatically in some parts of the region.

Portugal, Spain and the U.K. and have seen infections decline in recent weeks, but this contrasts sharply with countries including France, Germany and Greece which are all seeing rises in weekly cases compared to the previous week.

Coming down, for some
The U.K., where a more infectious variant emerged late last year and has since spread to Europe, is seeing infections falling, a decline that is likely tied to both the ongoing lockdown restrictions (set to be lifted in coming months) and a rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines.

Since starting its vaccine rollout in early December, the U.K. has immunized over 18.2 million people with at least their first vaccine dose, the latest data shows. It made a decision early on to delay a second dose of the vaccine, to a maximum of 12 weeks after the first dose, in a bid to offer at least partial protection to more people.

With evidence showing that vaccines can help prevent transmission of the virus, as well as preventing severe Covid-19 infection, hospitalizations and deaths, the U.K. has seen its weekly coronavirus case rate fall. In the last seven days, 73,392 people have tested positive for Covid-19, down 14.7% from the previous seven days. On Wednesday, 9,938 new cases were recorded from the previous day, a steep drop from the 31,839 cases reported at the start of 2021, on January 1.

Nonetheless, the U.K. still has the fifth highest number of cases in the world, with over 4.1 million cases recorded, and almost 122,000 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.