Press play to listen to this article
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
In response to China’s COVID surge, EU countries are gradually moving closer to coordinated travel measures, including pre-departure testing, masks on flights and testing of sewage for possible new variants.
The pressure for a joint response comes after several EU countries had already introduced their own measures to contain COVID rates from China and monitor for new variants, despite vows to improve cooperation during the first wave of the pandemic.
At a health security meeting on Tuesday with national ministers and representatives from the European Commission, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, officials came closer to a consensus on pre-departure testing for travelers from China, strengthened wastewater monitoring of flights and a increased surveillance of the virus domestically, tweeted EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
Members “converged” these measures, she said, adding: “The discussion will continue tomorrow [the integrated political crisis response (IPCR) mechanism meeting].”
A Commission spokesman told POLITICO that the Commission had presented a draft opinion on proposed measures for EU capitals, which is now being “revised and adopted” based on their input.
“The vast majority of countries are in favor of pre-departure testing,” the spokesman said, adding that such testing “needs to be targeted to the most appropriate flights and airports and carried out in a coordinated manner to ensure their effectiveness.”
The draft opinion also includes mask wearing on flights from China, personal hygiene for travelers and increased EU vigilance on testing and vaccination. It includes genomic surveillance at airports to detect new variants, such as B. testing of toilet water, as well as increased monitoring and sequencing. All of these measures will be taken into account by the EU Crisis Response Panel at its meeting on Wednesday.
Many countries in Europe have taken sewage samples during the pandemic to identify outbreaks of COVID, but also to genetically sequence samples to monitor for new variants.
Belgium was the first country to announce this week that it would test and sequence sewage samples from two flights a week from China for variants.
Countries including the UK have said there is a lack of comprehensive health information shared by China, making it difficult to tell if new variants are emerging in the country.
Meanwhile, countries like Italy, France and Spain introduced their own testing measures for travelers from China as well as the UK last week