European Union health officials are set to convene on Wednesday to discuss a coordinated strategy to deal with the recent surge in COVID-19 infections in China. This comes after the December talks on the matter yielded no solutions.
“There is a scheduled Integrated Political Crisis Response meeting on Wednesday, January 4, for an update of the COVID-19 situation in China and to discuss possible EU measures to be taken in a coordinated way,” the Swedish EU presidency confirmed on Monday.
During a meeting on December 29, Italy urged the rest of the EU to test inbound travelers from China amid the surge in cases. The Chinese government is set to lift its travel restrictions on January 8. Others in the 27-member body stated that they see no need to implement further testing regardless of this virus spread.
European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides urged leaders of EU governments to consider increasing their genomic sequencing of COVID-19 infections. She also recommended the monitoring of wastewater in an effort to detect any new variants.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed last week that it has not taken steps to recommend health and safety measures to travelers arriving from China.