
COVID-19: EU coordination attempts
Dealing with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China
CC – 01/2023
The abandonment of the zero COVID policy
and the increasing number of Corona cases amongst the Chinese population are
again leading to a need for coordination within the EU. Member states want to
be more proactive so that they do not repeat the same mistakes that they made
when the pandemic started.
Dealing with travellers from China
Member states agreed on a "coordinated
precautionary approach" on 4 January due to their concerns that case
numbers are now increasing and mutations are occurring once again in the EU
following the relaxations in China. The crisis response meeting convened by the
Swedish Presidency of the Council strongly recommended that all passengers entering the EU
from China are required to have an up-to-date, negative COVID-19 test.
Medical or FFP2 masks should also be worn
on all flights to and from China. Random checks should also be made upon
arrival and any positive results should be sequenced. None of these measures
are obligatory. Member states are only "strongly encouraged" to
implement them.
An attempt at coordination
Several member states, such as France,
Italy and Spain, had already introduced unilateral travel measures before the
EU’s coordinated approach was agreed upon. Austria, Belgium, Germany and other
member states have implemented the EU measures. However, there are still member
states, e.g. Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, that do not want to
follow the EU's approach. The reasons vary. Whereas the reason in the Czech
Republic is the lack of direct flights to China, the Polish health minister
claims that the measures are not justified. Australia, India, Japan, the UK and the USA
have also announced tougher measures. Morocco has even banned Chinese arrivals
completely.
Non-transparent situation in China
The European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control (ECDC), which held a special meeting of the Committee for the
Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on 16 January, issued a progress
report. The lack of transparency is particularly challenging. There is little
data available about COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, deaths as well as ICU
capacity and utilisation in China. The ECDC assumes – subject to the difficult
data situation – that the increase in cases in China will have no significant
impact on the epidemiological situation in the EU due to the higher immunity of
the EU population. Currently, there is no data available that would indicate
the occurrence of mutation variants of concern in China. Member states agreed to reassess the
situation and review the measures at the end of January.