Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou called for urgent immediate action to protect lives following the rise in the percentages of covid-19 new cases throughout Europe.
‘We need to protect people and survival means, relieve pressures on public health systems and control the spread of the virus’ Kyriakidou stressed during a Commission meeting on the pandemic.
Next month, as she noted, the Commission will be presenting the first step towards a European Health Union, but in the mean time, member states should improve the exchange of data, adding that ‘the EU monitoring system is as strong as its weakest link’.
The Commission will be presenting additional collective action tomorrow at a teleconference of the 27 leaders, including an improvement in the flow and exchange of data to and from the ECDC and the creation of faster and more effective diagnostic tests, with an advisory on how countries should conduct covid-19 testing, including priority groups, as well as the infrastructure and resources required to conduct tests.
It will be proposing the creation of a joint reference framework and a platform to monitor the national vaccine strategy effectiveness, as well as the resumption of intensive communication campaigns to inform citizens and deal with false, misleading or even dangerous information on the so called ‘pandemic exhaustion’, focusing on the need to vaccinate.
The Commission will be doing away with taxes and VAT on imports of medical equipment from third countries, including vaccines and covid-19 diagnostic tests.
