European Center for Disease Control calls for ‘strong measures’ to tackle virus in EU
The director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Andrea Ammon, on Tuesday called on countries in the European Union to apply “strong measures” to stop the escalation of coronavirus infections. “Strong action now will help us keep transmission levels low, ease the burden on the health care system, and keep most of them safe during these holidays and also in 2022,” the director said. ‘ECDC to ministers of health of EU countries, meeting in council. in Brussels.
Ammon explained that the “epidemiological situation in the EU is already very worrying or very worrying” with the delta variant as the dominant strain and could worsen with the emergence of omicron. On this line detected for the first time in South Africa, 634 cases had already been confirmed on Monday in 23 countries of the EU and the European Economic Area, a figure which should increase. “At the moment there are no serious cases or deaths among those detected, but it is still too early to decide what the level of danger is,” Ammon said.
The ECDC chief added that preliminary “data” from South Africa and the UK “suggests it is” more transmissible “and if so omicron would cover 50% of infections in the coming months in the European Union, for this reason, he advocated the application of “non-pharmaceutical measures, in addition to booster doses (…) starting with vulnerable adults over 40 years”. avoid massive concentrations, encourage the use of masks, reduce contact between groups, also in the social environment, and increase testing and monitoring capacities. ”
In the same appearance, the executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Emer Cooke, indicated that in the case of booster injections, a dose “different from the initial dose seems very effective” in increasing immunity. . (Eph)
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