The first Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Europe report published jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe on 26 January 2022, provides a pan-European overview of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation in the European region, featuring data from 2020. The report presents a regional and […]
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European Health Union: a stronger role for the European Medicines Agency
As part of the on-going work to build a strong European Health Union, the Council has adopted the Regulation revising the mandate of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), taking an important step towards EMA’s reinforcement in crisis preparedness and management for medicinal products and medical devices. The new rules will allow the Agency to closely […]
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Efficient tracing of Omicron with new PCR test
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has developed a new detection method specific for the Omicron variant. The method has been successfully validated in silico, based on bioinformatics. The JRC now invites control laboratories worldwide to validate it in vivo on clinical samples. Following the recent emergence of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, Omicron, […]
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EU and US officials discuss efforts to donate and deliver 1.7 billion vaccine doses around the world
Senior European Commission officials met last week with senior White House and other U.S. government officials on progress and next steps towards achieving the US-EU Agenda for Beating the Global Pandemic Vaccinating the World, Saving Lives Now, and Building Back Better Health Security. Led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s Head of Cabinet […]
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Vaccination evolution and hospitalizations in Europe – November
This news item shows the evolution of vaccination against COVID-19 in Europe during November. The data for this article were obtained from Our World in Data. During the month of November a total of 25,442,274 citizens received the full course of COVID-19, which meant that by the end of this month a total of 505,749,276 […]
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EU-UK relations: Commission guarantees continued supply of medicines to Northern Ireland
The Commission has put forward proposals to ensure the continued long-term supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and to address outstanding supply concerns in Cyprus, Ireland and Malta. In the context of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, this means that the same medicines will continue to be available in Northern Ireland at […]
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COVID-19 Evolution in Europe during November
This news item shows the evolution of the COVID-19 virus in Europe during November. The data for this article have been obtained from several official sources (Johns Hopkins University, Reuters, WHO…), concerning the incidence of diagnosed cases and deaths due to the COVID-19 virus. In November, Europe ended with a total of 87,859,651 diagnosed […]
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Safe travel coordination strengthened in the EU
The European Commission has proposed to update the rules on coordination of safe and free movement in the EU, which were put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the summer, vaccine uptake has increased significantly and the EU Digital COVID Certificate has been rolled out successfully, with more than 650 million certificates […]
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The European Commission considers making COVID-19 vaccine compulsory
The Commission is today putting forward a common and coordinated EU approach to address effectively the challenges from the resurgence of COVID-19 in many Member States this autumn. There are rapidly rising case numbers and a renewed pressure on hospitals, which calls for urgent and determined action. The new potential threat from the Omicron variant […]
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