The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, wants to take advantage of the lull on the Covid-19 pandemic front to redeploy the European and Member States’ response to the pandemic.
Member States are engaging in very different approaches in this new phase of the pandemic. The institution is therefore concerned about fragmentation in the European Union. This disparity threatens the gains generated by the relative coordination achieved since the beginning of the pandemic within the EU.
The Commission is proposing a series of actions to Member States that address the different dimensions of the health response to the pandemic at EU and national level to move from an emergency management of the pandemic to a more sustainable approach and to make the EU rapidly reactive in case of a resurgence of the pandemic. “We must not let our guard down”, insisted Stella Kyriakides.
For example, national testing campaigns currently focus on severe Covid-19 cases and people at risk of developing severe forms of the disease, which reduces the quality of sampling and data. The Commission calls on Member States to set up integrated, digitalised and coordinated monitoring systems. It wants Member States to be able to develop appropriate sampling to provide representative and robust data, similar to seasonal influenza surveillance systems. Other modes of surveillance of the epidemic should also be mobilised.
The Commission confirms that it will support efforts for cross-border surveillance of pathogens and the establishment of integrated and coordinated surveillance systems by mobilising €20 million from the EU4Health programme and the support of the ECDC.
In the area of vaccination, two elements are of particular concern to the European Commission in the event of a possible resurgence of the epidemic. On the one hand, the roll-out of vaccination has reached a plateau and the vaccination rate remains very low in some Member States. On the other hand, the immunity of people who have not yet received a booster dose is declining. The Commission is therefore proposing a package of measures to Member States to encourage vaccination and booster shots and is calling for the roll-out of the 4th dose for relevant groups (see EUROPE 12928/27), the development of strategies to roll out vaccines to young children in the 2022-2023 academic year, and the preparation of vaccine campaigns for this autumn, including seasonal flu vaccines. Finally, the Commission proposes to integrate vaccination against Covid-19 into national programmes from 2023.
The Commission addressed the issue of vaccine production. It foresees the arrival of a second generation of vaccines. The institution stands ready to facilitate regulatory aspects and supports the development of candidate vaccines and potential treatments, notably through Horizon Europe. Various initiatives are underway to facilitate cross-border clinical trials.
The Commission announces the operational implementation of the EU FAB initiative. The project, announced in February 2021 as part of the HERA incubator, aims to secure vaccine production capacity to meet European market demand in the event of a public health emergency. The EU FAB initiative will work with Member States and vaccine producers to consolidate a network of vaccine production facilities. The Commission announces the forthcoming publication of a call for tenders in this context.
The European Commission calls on Member States to strengthen the resilience of health systems.
It also wants states to develop strategies to reintroduce non-pharmaceutical interventions if and when the health situation requires it. States are called upon to invest in prophylactic approaches.
Finally, the Commission draws attention to other public health issues directly or indirectly related to Covid-19, the consideration of long Covid-19 and mental health, particularly among young people.
Link to the communication: https://aeur.eu/f/1e4 (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)