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The leaders of the EU member states agreed in a video conference to maintain restrictive measures to stop the coronavirus epidemic and, if necessary, to toughen them to stop the spread of viral mutations, said the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, after the summit. casual on Thursday night. .
So far, 435,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the European Union,
and two million in the world.
In a post-EU press conference, Michel emphasized that
the internal borders of the European Union must remain open to ensure the continuous functioning of the internal market,
however, to be successful in fighting the virus and all its mutations, it is conceivable to limit non-essential travel.
Coordinating the actions of the Member States in this direction is key, stressed Charles Michel.
Member state leaders called for the mutual recognition of the use of rapid antigen tests and the results of coronavirus tests to be of the utmost importance, and for vaccination campaigns to be accelerated. It was stated that vaccines should be distributed to all Member States at the same time in proportion to the population. It is also necessary to monitor the results of the vaccination campaign, share experiences and have the necessary infrastructure and equipment for mass vaccination. To be available, vaccine manufacturers must respect the agreements, he stressed.
In the context of the so-called vaccine passport certifying vaccination, the president of the Prime Minister’s Consultative Forum said that careful preparations were needed for the future use of such certificates. As he said, the leaders of the Member States will return to the issue at a later stage as it will only be possible to assess at a later stage of the epidemic how and under what circumstances such certificates can be used. Its implementation requires extraordinary coordination and recognition of the vaccination operation, and strict control of the entire vaccination process.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed at the press conference that the coronavirus epidemic continues to have very serious consequences in Europe, and that the newly released mutant variants of the virus are of great concern.
It drew the attention of Member States to the fact that
more information is needed on viral mutations and their prevalence,
therefore, he called for the introduction of studies to determine the genome of the virus. He said vaccines offer hope in the fight against the epidemic, but the EU must focus on delivering vaccines faster and using already available stocks effectively. He also stressed that the Union was determined to provide greater predictability in the delivery of vaccines to Member States and in increasing the number of doses.
Von der Leyen considered that closing the borders was not an adequate way to curb the virus and therefore proposed specific measures, including the introduction of a new risk category, marked in dark red, between the color codes of the epidemic map. , which would indicate areas. with exceptionally high infection rates.
Regarding the documentation of vaccination against coronavirus, the president of the EU Executive Committee considered that it should be examined in several ways, such as answering questions about how long vaccination provides protection and whether a vaccine could carry the virus. It is also legal
Cases where, for example, someone does not have access to the vaccine or may not be able to vaccinate for health reasons are also considered.
The proper handling of personal data also raises other problems.
Von der Leyen confirmed that enough vaccine will soon arrive in EU member states to protect 70 percent of the population. He also said that the EU had established its own vaccine distribution mechanism to bring the vaccine to low-income countries through the international COVAX vaccine distribution initiative or otherwise.
Before the meeting of Heads of State or Government, the Council of the European Union adopted, by written procedure, a recommendation on a common EU framework for the mutual recognition of the use of rapid antigen tests and test results of coronavirus. Key elements include the validation and mutual recognition of the results of rapid antigen tests and RT-PCR tests, as well as the exchange of standardized and digitized data between Member States.
The Recommendation also contains provisions
also to address the challenges of a possible pandemic in the future.
This requires, among other things, the flexibility of a common list of rapid antigen tests to add or remove tests whose efficacy is affected by viral mutations.
Top image: Council of Europe President Charles Michel, speaking from Brussels, will speak at a video conference at the EU Summit on January 21, 2021. Photo: AFP
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