EU regulator says Covid pandemic not over
An official at the European Union’s drugs regulator said on Tuesday the Covid-19 pandemic was not over, contradicting US President Joe Biden, and that a planned vaccination campaign in the region during the cold season was key to fighting it.
Exterior of the EU Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (© REUTERS)
An official at the European Union’s drugs regulator said on Tuesday the Covid-19 pandemic was not over, contradicting US President Joe Biden, and that a planned vaccination campaign in the region during the cold season was key to fighting it.
“We in Europe still consider the pandemic as ongoing and it’s important that member states prepare for rollout of the vaccines and especially the adaptive vaccines to prevent further spread of this disease in Europe,” the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Chief Medical Officer Steffen Thirstrup told a media briefing, referring to vaccines targeting specific strains of the virus.
He was asked to comment on Biden’s remark in an interview broadcast on Sunday that “the pandemic is over”.
“I cannot obviously answer why President Biden came to that conclusion,” Thirstrup said.
The World Health Organization has said the pandemic remains a global emergency but the end could be in sight if countries use the tools at their disposal.
During the media briefing, EMA officials reaffirmed a call by the agency’s Executive Director Emer Cooke made last week in a Reuters Next Newsmaker interview that people in Europe should take whatever Covid-19 booster is available and recommended to them in the coming months.
Apart from the original Covid vaccines, the EMA has in recent weeks endorsed a number of vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant of the virus for use as booster shots to ease the burden from a feared surge in infections during autumn and winter in Europe.
The EMA’s head of vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said the agency was also looking into the use of the adapted shots as a primary course of vaccination and that there were discussions on the types of data could support such an approval. [Reuters]
In related news, Hellenic health authorities confirmed 36,146 new SARS-CoV-2 cases and 111 deaths in the week of September 12-18, the first week of the new school year.
This is equivalent to 3,465 coronavirus cases per 1 mln people (weekly change: up 7%), with 24% of the new weekly infections involving reinfections, the National Public Health Organization (EODY) said in its weekly report. The 7% rise in registered infections this week concerns mainly the age groups of 6-12 and 13-18 years.
All confirmed infections since the pandemic began are 4,875,215. The median age of the week’s infections was 38 years.
In addition, 82 hospital patients were on ventilators on September 18. Their median age is 82 years and 96.3% have an underlying condition and/or are aged 70 or over.
A total of 818 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospital during the week of September 12-18 (117.4% patients on a weekly average, up 4% compared to the previous week), while the total number of Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals for the same week was 754 (108 as weekly average, or -13% compared to previous week).
