“We are entering a new phase of the pandemic, which requires rethinking the way we manage the virus,” European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Wednesday. The EU must now remain vigilant and work on its resilience with a view to future developments, believes the European Commission, which on Wednesday set out a new “strategy” in this area. And all this despite the “fatigue” that has set in among the population after two years of the pandemic, and the fact that “between 60 and 80% of EU citizens, according to estimates, have already had Covid” . “It remains very likely that new variants will emerge in the future,” warned the Cypriot commissioner. “We must not let our guard down.”
The European executive suggests reviewing, in this calmer period, the way of monitoring the evolution of the virus. States are invited to abandon mass screening, to focus more on a few cases to have a representative and reliable image of changes in the intensity of transmission and the severity of the virus. The Commission recommends having “an integrated surveillance system, throughout the year, monitoring all respiratory diseases”, explained Stella Kyriakides at a press conference.
“The question is not if new variants will appear, but when. Improvisation and fragmentation are not an option. Vigilance and preparation are more crucial than ever and we must continue our work without delay” , said Vice President Margaritis Schinas.
At the same time, the Commission continues to insist on the importance of vaccination, including with “booster” doses. This booster vaccination now seems to be stagnating, at “around 64% of the adult population” in the EU (Belgium is above the EU average, at 75% of adults). “And we still have 90 million European citizens who are not vaccinated,” recalls the Commissioner.
In order to continue to have “local” vaccines that can be quickly mobilized in the future, the Commission wishes to maintain an operational “network” of vaccine production sites on European soil, with the possibility of having a “priority right”. To this end, it launched on Wednesday under the title “EU FAB” a call for tenders to “reserve vaccine production capacities” (protein, messenger RNA or viral vector) located in the EU (or in Iceland , Liechtenstein, Norway, countries of the European economic area), with a view to “future health emergencies”. Pharmaceutical firms and companies that produce for others in the pharmaceutical field can express their interest in participating until June 3. In a second step, negotiations will be opened with the selected candidates. In the event of a health emergency, the EU could then activate the capacities for which it would have concluded contracts.