“The vast majority of countries are in favor of testing before departure,” a spokesperson for the Brussels authority said on Tuesday after a meeting of representatives of national health ministries. In principle, a “coordinated approach” was agreed. The discussion will continue this Wednesday at an expert level meeting of EU countries.
EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides wrote on Twitter on Tuesday after the meeting that measures such as pre-departure tests and stricter monitoring of wastewater were getting closer. European unity remains the strongest instrument against Covid-19.
However, a number of EU countries had recently tightened the rules for entry from China on their own. In France, for example, post-arrival PCR testing becomes mandatory. Austria wants to investigate the waste water from flights from China. And Spain has introduced the 3G rule – so travelers from China must be vaccinated, tested or recovered. Germany wanted to continue to monitor the situation.
The EU health authority ECDC gave it all-clear about the situation in China. It is unlikely that this will have any impact on the epidemiological situation in Europe, it said on Tuesday. The variants in China were already circulating in the EU and did not challenge the immune response of citizens in the EU.
According to the spokesman, the committee had prepared a statement for Tuesday’s meeting, which is now being revised based on the discussion. In addition to corona tests before departure, it therefore proposes measures such as monitoring aircraft wastewater, stricter sequencing of corona samples and wearing face masks on flights from China.
(SDA)