London: Imposing tighter controls to curb COVID-19 contagion could save hundreds of thousands of lives across Europe before February as the continent battles an exponential surge in infections, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.Urging governments to "step up" swiftly to contain in a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO's European director Hans Kluge said the current situation was, "more than ever, pandemic times for Europe".New infections are hitting 100,000 daily in Europe, and the region has just registered the highest weekly incidence of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with almost 700,000 cases reported."The fall (autumn) and winter surge continues to unfold in Europe, with exponential.