EU agrees to 'coordinated approach' for changing Covid situation

The European Union Health Security Committee said on Tuesday EU member states agreed on a "coordinated approach" to the changing Covid-19 situation, adding that included implications for increased travel from China. 

Stella Kyriakides, the head of the EU's health department, said the group focused on targeted measures including pre-departure testing for Chinese travelers, expanded wastewater monitoring, and ramped up domestic surveillance. 

According to the European Commission, an "overwhelming majority" of the EU's 27 member states want routine Covid testing for travelers arriving from China. 

Following a meeting of representatives from the EU's health ministries on Tuesday in Brussels, a consensus suggestion was produced. 

What coordinated actions will be taken throughout the bloc will be decided at a crisis conference scheduled for Wednesday. 

The events were organized in response to China's decision to suspend its "zero Covid" policy, which has resulted in a huge increase in demand for flights to other countries from Chinese nationals and residents who had been barred from traveling for over three years. 

The European Union is concerned that a rapid surge of Chinese travelers might carry Covid strains that would be able to resist existing vaccinations. 

Concerns about incomplete, partial, and inadequate data on infections in China are another issue. 

Pre-departure testing is supported by "the vast majority of nations," a commission spokeswoman said following the meeting on Tuesday. 

According to Kyriakides, the authorities also decided to advise member states to increase surveillance as well as increased monitoring of wastewater from aircraft and airports to look for evidence of Covid. 

At the meeting scheduled for Wednesday, she emphasized the importance of EU "unity." 

In anticipation of a bloc-wide strategy, many EU nations, notably France, Spain, and Italy, have already put testing requirements on arrivals from China. 

The tightened limits, which are also being imposed by the US, Japan, and Australia, have sparked a furious response from Beijing. 

Beijing's own data regarding the unprecedented surge are now largely seen as not representing reality because China has only registered 22 Covid fatalities since December and has severely limited the criteria for categorizing such deaths. 

There haven't been any new Covid numbers from China for more than a week, according to data provided by the World Health Organization, on which the EU depends. 

An "offer stands," the commission declared earlier on Tuesday, for the EU to give China Covid vaccines and expertise. 

A spokesperson stated that Kyriakides had recently reiterated the vaccination offer and that any delivery would rely on Beijing's response. 

Scientific studies have demonstrated that mRNA vaccines, particularly the ones produced by BioNTech/Pfizer, are more effective against severe Covid than the inactivated-virus vaccinations China has created and utilizes. As a result, several EU countries have an excess of these vaccines.