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The European Anti-Epidemic Agency has asked member states to be prepared to introduce stricter measures in the coming weeks to stop the spread of new variants of the coronavirus, AFP reported.
“The main message is to prepare for a rapid increase in the severity of the measures in the coming weeks, in order to maintain medical care capacity, as well as to accelerate vaccination campaigns,” said the European Center for Control and Disease Prevention. which includes the 27 EU countries, Great Britain, Norway and Iceland, bTV reported.
In addition, the Center raised its assessment of the level of health risks associated with new coronavirus variants to a “high / very high” level. In the previous assessment at the end of December, the level was “high”. Like the WHO, the European Office based in Stockholm asked its member states to strengthen their testing capacity and especially the monitoring capacity to detect new variants of the coronavirus, identified as British, South African and Brazilian.
“Given that population groups responsible for transmitting the infection will not be vaccinated for several more months, it is recommended that member states exercise caution before loosening” restrictive measures, the center said. “Given the evidence of significantly higher infectivity of the new options of interest, national authorities should be prepared to take even more stringent measures and encourage the population to comply,” the European agency added. As of Tuesday, the center reported around 1,300 cases of the British variant of the coronavirus in member states, excluding Great Britain, where the strain is already dominant. As of January 19, 27 cases of the South African strain had been reported in 10 Member States.
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