The outbreak is becoming “very serious” as the spread of the more contagious variant of the virus accelerates, the EU-27 video conference has just concluded. The EU called on member states to avoid unnecessary travel between them, and France announced that from Sunday, all persons entering France from member states must show proof of a negative nucleic acid test 72 hours before departure. Exceptions are made for essential travel and border staff.
Following an urgent appeal from the EU health agency, European Commission President von der Leyen strongly advised Thursday evening to cancel all non-essential travel between member states, saying, “We are very concerned about the various mutated viruses that are becoming prevalent.”
Von der Leyen proposed the creation of a “deep red zone” to mark high-risk areas, and that anyone coming from the EU’s deep red zone must be tested for nucleic acid before departure and then quarantined upon entry.
For “essential travel” from outside the EU, Von der Leyen said, “we will propose additional security measures, such as requiring pre-departure testing, etc.”.
Member states including Germany and the Netherlands have taken tougher measures in recent days in the face of the highly contagious British and South African variants of the virus, with the Dutch parliament approving a curfew on Thursday night and Portugal, concerned about the British variant, announcing the closure of primary and secondary schools, nurseries and universities for 15 days.
On the eve of the EU summit, member states reached an agreement to mutually recognize test certificates, including nucleic acid tests and antigen tests.
The EU also called for accelerated vaccination, with 70 percent of the adult population vaccinated by the end of summer and 80 percent of health care workers and those over 80 years of age vaccinated by the end of March.
The vaccines currently approved for use in the EU are the Pfizer vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and German Biotech and the Modena vaccine from the U.S. In addition, by the end of the month, the EU Medicines Agency should approve the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine currently available in the UK.
In total, the EU currently has six purchase contracts with vaccine manufacturing companies and is in discussions with two other pharmaceutical companies, with the total number of vaccines purchased expected to reach 2.5 billion doses.
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