European Health Ministers are expected to hold a teleconference on Friday 7 February to discuss the coronavirus outbreak, two well-informed sources confirmed to us on Tuesday 4 February. The decision is to be taken by the Member States’ Deputy Ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday 5 February.
According to our information, the idea of an extraordinary meeting of Health Ministers, already mentioned at the end of January, has not been abandoned and continues to circulate (see EUROPE 12414/8).
According to a latest count at press time, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control counted 20,626 cases of infection (28 in the European region) and 426 deaths worldwide (but none in Europe).
EMA offers assistance in the fight against the coronavirus
In this context, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) proposed on Tuesday to activate its plan to manage emerging health threats in response to the current coronavirus outbreak.
“There are currently no commercially available medicines authorised to detect, treat, or prevent infection with the new coronavirus. The EMA stands ready to support developers of medicines with all available regulatory tools to advance and accelerate the development of effective measures to combat and prevent the spread of this virus”, the EU agency said in a statement. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)