On Wednesday 15 July, the European Commission issued a document setting out a series of principles to ensure that EU health systems will be ready to respond in the event of a new outbreak of Covid-19.
The document calls in particular for a reduction in the burden caused by seasonal flu, in order to avoid a “cocktail of risks”, as EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides put it. The document suggests that Member States should increase vaccination coverage, ensure they have sufficient vaccines and adapt vaccination infrastructure for seasonal influenza.
The other subjects in the document include: epidemiological monitoring, ensuring the internal market functions properly, the availability of infrastructure and manpower, non-pharmaceutical countermeasures, and support for vulnerable groups.
“The reason we’re issuing this document is to avoid a second wave. Prevention is better than containment”, Kyriakides told the press, though she declined to comment further on the EU’s preparedness for a potential new wave.
According to the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the current figure for infections in the EU, the UK and the European Economic Area stands at 1.5 million people, including 179,800 deaths.
Against re-entering lockdown
In the section on non-pharmaceutical counter-measures, the Commission expresses its reluctance to see Member States going back into lockdown. “It is in the public interest to avoid further large-scale containment measures in the event of new outbreaks. (...) Instead, the response should be in the form of targeted, localised, non-medical countermeasures supported by evidence and research”, the Commission notes in the document.
The same applies to closing the EU’s internal borders. “Setting back up inefficient restrictions and controls at the EU’s internal borders must be avoided in the future. Measures that involve restricting the movement of people or goods within the EU should be used only in situations where it is necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory”.
Greater EU coordination
The document also calls for greater coordination between Member States. Knowing that the Commission’s previous recommendations have not always been followed (at present only three countries comply strictly with the list of safe non-Member States adopted by the Council of the EU), Commission Vice-President Margarítis Schinás said: “We’ll never get tired of mentioning this. We don’t want to see a lack of coordination like we saw with the initial response to Covid”.
With regard to epidemiological monitoring, the Commission is inviting the EU27 to carry out stress tests for contact-tracing systems at local level based on various scenarios (where there is a high incidence of the disease or in targeted areas such as abattoirs). It is also asking them to ensure that test kits are available, and to work within the Health Security Committee (HSC) to align their testing strategies.
With regard to ensuring the proper functioning of the internal market, the document invites Member States to map out opportunities for creating flexible production capacity and converting production within their borders.
Also contained in the document is an announcement about ECDC guidelines on making the optimisation of space in hospitals easier, to be published in July. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)