The European Commission has convened a meeting for Thursday 29 December to discuss a coordinated approach by EU countries to deal with the explosion of Covid-19 cases in China. Fears that new variants of the virus are spreading, including Omicron’s BF.7, are on everyone’s lips.
“Given the pandemic situation in China,” the European executive is meeting this Thursday morning, December 29, with a committee made up of representatives of the 27 health ministries, said a European Commission spokeswoman. The aim is to “discuss possible measures for a coordinated European approach”.
After the abrupt end of the “zero Covid” policy this month in China, which led to a very large wave of contamination in the country, several states of the world are concerned about the possibility of the spread of new variants from the Asian country of the virus. Starting with the BF.7 Omicron, which has infected more than 250 million Chinese in the past two weeks.
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What we know about the Omicron variant BF.7
B.7 descends directly from the BA.5 variant that arrived in France mid-year. “Last November, in France and more generally in Europe, we were confronted with the co-circulation of two variants: the BQ.1.1. and the BF.7,” Professor Bruno Lina tells La Dépêche du Midi. “In France, BF.7 affects only 5 to 10% of infections,” specifies the virologist. The trend is also declining, with BF.7 contamination decreasing week by week.
BF.7 belongs to the Omicron variant family, the symptoms this strain produces are not so different from what has recently been observed in France. “Infection with this variant usually results in cough, fever, throat irritation.” This strain is also highly contagious. If it’s wreaking havoc in China, it’s because “there are a lot of people who haven’t come into contact with either the vaccine or the virus,” explains Prof. Lina.
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Why does Europe want to protect itself from this variant?
“China is therefore dealing with a variant that is spreading very quickly, which is not necessarily more dangerous than what we have in France, but which could cause significant damage in the context of a population with low immunity,” believes virologist Je the greater the spread of the virus, the greater the risk that a new variant will emerge. “We remain vigilant and ready to apply the ’emergency brake’ if necessary,” says the spokesman for the European Commission, “in a coordinated manner” if the epidemiological situation requires it .
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Can Member States give a coordinated response?
Italy has already decided this Wednesday, December 28th, to impose mandatory tests on all travelers from China. A measure that has already been taken in Japan and that was also adopted yesterday by the United States.
Elsewhere in the EU, other countries are waiting: the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has asked the government to take “appropriate measures to protect” the French, who will ensure “very close monitoring of the evolution of the situation in China”.
Paris says it is “ready to consider any useful measures that could be implemented as a result, in collaboration with France’s European partners and within the legal framework in place today”.
The EU Commission should strive to prevent some EU member states from going it alone by imposing unagreed restrictions on their borders, as was the case at the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020.