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European countries are  showing promising signs of improvement amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said Friday as the death toll from the pandemic exceeded 100,000.

"In the past week, we've seen a welcome slowing in some of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, like Spain, Italy, Germany and France," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Spain's death toll hit 15,000 this week, but the death rate has shown signs of slowing. Italy still reports the most deaths of any country, though it is possible the U.S. could surpass that number soon.

While Germany reports a much lower death toll than countries with similar numbers of cases, it still saw a spike in fatalities this week. But experts said mitigation measures are helping lower the number of new coronavirus cases in the country.

Tedros added that other countries, specifically some in Africa, are going in the opposite direction.
"At the same time, we've seen an alarming acceleration in other countries," Tedros said. "I want to take a moment to highlight Africa, where we are seeing the spread of the virus to rural areas. We are now seeing clusters of cases and community spread in more than 16 countries."