Health agency: COVID surge in China unlikely to cause rise in EU cases

As COVID-19 cases in mainland China rise, the EU’s health agency said that the increase is unlikely to cause a spike in infections across the bloc, while the European Commission has offered Beijing vaccine doses.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Tuesday (3 January) that the COVID-19 epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA should not be impacted by the high number of cases in China due to high population immunity.

“The variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU, and as such are not challenging for the immune response of EU/EEA citizens. In addition, EU/EEA citizens have relatively high immunisation and vaccination levels,” the ECDC said.

Some member states – such as France, Italy and Spain – have already introduced COVID testing requirements on travellers coming from China, while others are waiting for a coordinated approach.

As of Thursday, England will require people flying from mainland China to take a pre-departure test. In addition, a sample of arrivals will be tested in order to enhance existing measures and monitor for new variants.

“It is right for us to take a balanced and precautionary approach by announcing these temporary measures while we assess the data,” said the UK’s Secretary of State for Health Steve Barclay on Friday.

France, Britain, Spain impose Covid tests on travelers from China

France, Britain and Spain on 30 December joined a growing list of nations imposing Covid tests on travelers from China, and the World Health Organization pressed Beijing to be more forthcoming on real-time data amid an explosion of cases there.

EU offers donations of variant-adapted vaccines

On Tuesday, an EU spokesperson announced Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides offered EU support to her Chinese counterparts to deal with the surge, both in the form of public health expertise as well as variant-adapted EU vaccine donations. So far, there has been no reaction from the Chinese side.

“Dependent on the reaction from the other side, the conversation would flow from there,” the spokesperson said.

China U-turned on its controversial three-year ‘zero COVID’ policy in December 2022 following mass protests against the draconian measures.

Almost all restrictions have now been lifted, with quarantine requirements for overseas travellers due to be removed later in January.

However, low population immunity has since brought a sharp rise in cases. According to the ECDC, the number of recorded infections reached an all-time high in early December 2022. Numbers have since fallen, but this could be attributed to reduced testing capacity, the EU’s health agency said.

“There continues to be a lack of reliable data on COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, deaths as well as Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capacity and occupancy in China,” the ECDC stated. 

China’s health commission stopped sharing daily reports on COVID cases on 24 December. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on 30 December asked Chinese officials to regularly share specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation, including more genetic sequencing data, data on disease impact, such as hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths.

Call for joint action

On Wednesday, member states will meet to discuss the coordination of possible requirements for entry from China into the EU, following up on Tuesday’s meeting of the EU Health Security Committee (HTC), an informal advisory group.

“The Presidency is seeking a common EU approach to the possible introduction of entry requirements,” Swedish health minister Jakob Forssmed said in a press release.

Stockholm, which took over at the helm of the rotating presidency of the EU Council on 1 January, said that the meeting of the Council’s Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) mechanism is needed to coordinate joint European action in the face of the lifting of exit restrictions from China, combined with the increasing spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“It is important that we get the necessary measures in place quickly,” Forssmed said.

Last week, European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called for common action. “We need to work together to address the impacts of the COVID-19 situation in China,” she said in a tweet on Friday.

The tweet followed a letter sent to member states’ health ministers on 29 December, in which Kyriakides set out common measures, including scaling up wastewater monitoring and genomic surveillance.

EU to discuss joint Covid response to China arrivals on 4 January

EU countries will meet next week to discuss a joint response to travellers from China amid concern over the country’s explosion of Covid cases, incoming EU presidency holder Sweden announced Saturday (31 December).

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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