Filenews 20 January 2021
Two days before the meeting of European leaders on a coordinated response to the CRISIS due to COVID-19 disease, the Commission set out a number of actions needed to strengthen the fight against the pandemic. In a communication issued today, it calls on Member States to speed up vaccinations across the EU: By March 2021 at least 80 % of people over the age of 80 and 80 % of health and social care professionals in each Member State should have been vaccinated. Also by the summer of 2021 Member States should have vaccinated at least 70 % of the adult population.
The Commission also calls on the Member States to continue to apply distance keeping, to limit social contacts, to combat misinformation, to coordinate travel restrictions, to carry out more tests and to increase contact tracing and genome sequencing in order to address the risk of new variants of the virus. As there has been an upward trend in the number of cases in recent weeks, more needs to be done to support health systems and tackle 'COVID-19 fatigue' in the coming months, including by accelerating vaccination as a whole and helping our partners in the Western Balkans, southern and eastern neighbouring countries and Africa.
Today's Communication sets out key actions for the Member States, the Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which will help reduce risks and keep the virus under control:
Accelerating vaccinations across the EU
- By March 2021, at least 80 % of people over the age of 80 and 80 % of health and social care professionals in each Member State should have been vaccinated.
- By summer 2021 Member States should have vaccinated 70 % of the total adult population.
- The Commission, Member States and EMA will work with companies to harness the EU's potential to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity to the maximum.
- The Commission is working with Member States on vaccination certificates, in full compliance with EU data protection legislation, which can support continuity of care. A common approach is to be agreed by the end of January 2021 to allow the rapid use of Member States' certificates in health systems across the EU and beyond.
Genome testing and sequencing
- Member States should update their diagnostic strategies to take account of new variants and to extend the use of fast antigen testing.
- Member States should urgently increase genome sequencing to at least 5 % and preferably to 10 % of positive test results. Currently, many Member States carry out tests on less than 1 % of samples, which is not sufficient to determine the spread of variations or detect any new ones.
Maintaining the single market and free movement while strengthening mitigation measures
- Measures should be implemented to further reduce the risk of transmission associated with means of transport, such as hygiene and distance-keeping measures in vehicles and terminals.
- All non-essential movements should be strongly discouraged until the epidemiological situation significantly improves.
- Proportional travel restrictions, including testing travellers, should be maintained for those travelling from areas with a higher incidence of worrying variations.
Ensuring Europe's leadership and international solidarity
- In order to ensure timely access to vaccines, the Commission will set up the Europe Group mechanism to structure the supply of vaccines shared by Member States with partner countries. This mechanism will allow the allocation with partner countries of access to part of the EUR 2.3 billion that has been set aside for the period 2000-2006. provided through the EU Vaccine Strategy, with particular emphasis on the Western Balkans, our eastern and southern neighbours and Africa.
- The European Commission and the Member States should continue to support the COVAX mechanism, inter alia, through early access to vaccines. The Europe Group has already mobilised EUR 853 million for the period 2007-2013. In support of COVAX, the EU is one of the largest donors to COVAX.
Members of the Commission made the following statements:
European Commission President Ursula vonder Leyen said: "Vaccination is necessary to get out of this crisis. We have already ensured adequate vaccines for the entire population of the European Union. Now we need to speed up delivery and speed up vaccination. Our goal is to have 70 % of our adult population vaccinated by the summer. This could be a turning point in the fight against this virus. However, we will only end this pandemic when everyone in the world has access to vaccines. We will intensify our efforts to help secure vaccines for our neighbours and partners around the world."
Vice-President Margaritis Schinas ,responsible for promoting our European way of life, said: "The emergence of new variants of the virus and the significant increase in cases leave us no room for complacency. Today, more than ever, there must be a renewed determination for Europe to act collectively with unity, coordination and vigilance. Our proposals today aim to protect more lives and livelihoods later and to ease the burden on already burdened health systems and health workers. This is how the EU will overcome the crisis. The end of the pandemic is visible, although it is not yet close."
Stella Kyriakidou ,Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: "If we work together with unity, solidarity and determination, we can soon begin to see the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Especially now we need rapid and coordinated action against new variants of the virus. Vaccinations will still take time to reach all Europeans and, until then, we must take immediate, coordinated and proactive measures together. Vaccinations need to be accelerated across the EU, and tests and sequencing need to be increased — that is the only way we can ensure that we overcome this crisis as soon as possible."
Source: eyenews
