BRUSSELS: The lightning spread of omicron in Europe and elsewhere added a sense of urgency to an EU summit on Thursday, with leaders struggling to present a united, bloc-wide approach.
Projections that the highly mutated Covid strain could be dominant in the EU as early as next month have pushed the issue to the top of the agenda and ignited fears of a health crisis.
omicron was “of significant concern,” Irish premier Micheal Martin said as he arrived, especially “in terms of the capacity of that variant to spread rapidly and create pressure on our societies and our health systems.”
The talks took place the same day France imposed drastic new restrictions on arrivals from Britain, which is outside the EU and particularly hard hit by the variant.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Europe was faced with “a battle against time” and should expect “new measures” to cope.
The summit was also to tackle other big topics pressing hard on EU capitals, in particular the Russian military build-up on the borders of Ukraine.
That risk dominated a get-together on Wednesday between EU leaders and their neighboring eastern European counterparts, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
An ongoing confrontation with Belarus over migration flows testing the EU’s borders and spiking energy prices aggravating sky-high inflation round out the agenda.
It all made for a charged summit, the last before France takes over the rotating six-month EU presidency from Slovenia in the New Year.
An EU official said leaders tackled the threat of omicron at the start of the summit and “reaffirmed that rollout of vaccination is urgent and crucial,” as were booster shots.
“Many leaders also raised international cooperation and (the) need to inform partners adequately on EU measures, and take proportionate action,” the official said.
There was “a focus on the importance of coherent and coordinated approaches when adopting national measures,” the official said.
That was an implicit slap at Italy, which has tightened entry restrictions for EU arrivals by requiring pre-arrival Covid tests even of vaccinated travelers.
The measures went against the rules of an EU Covid certificate that since July has ensured easy intra-EU travel without quarantine or tests for the vaccinated.
While EU countries can suspend some of the rules in health emergencies, they need first to notify Brussels 48 hours in advance. The European Commission says Italy did not do so.
Other EU countries — Ireland, Portugal and Greece — have also made similar moves to require EU arrivals to take tests.
Europe is bracing for an omicron winter, with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen saying on Wednesday: “We’re told that by mid-January, we should expect omicron to be the new dominant variant in Europe.”
The timing is perilous. Although many EU countries are in the global vanguard in terms of vaccination rates, the rollout is patchy across the 27-nation bloc.
Nine EU countries have vaccination rates below 60 percent.
omicron’s apparent ability to mute the effects of existing vaccines has galvanized efforts to get booster shots into arms.
But the EU health agency ECDC on Wednesday warned jabs alone now would not be enough, given that omicron infections double around every two days.
“There will be no time to address the vaccination gaps that still exist,” said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
“The coming months will be difficult,” acknowledged EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
Omicron injects urgency into EU summit
https://arab.news/45wua
Omicron injects urgency into EU summit
- Projections that the highly mutated Covid strain could be dominant in the EU as early as next month
- Omicron was "of significant concern", Irish premier Micheal Martin said as he arrived
European bird flu spike due to record wild birds cases, EFSA says
- Outbreaks typically peak in autumn as migratory birds head south
- For humans, bird flu infected 19 people in four countries, Cambodia, China, Mexico and the US
PARIS: An unprecedented number of bird flu outbreaks among wild birds and their wide geographic spread are driving an early and strong wave of the disease in Europe this year, the European Food Safety Authority said on Thursday.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of farmed birds in recent years, disrupting food supplies and increasing prices. Human cases remain rare.
Outbreaks typically peak in autumn as migratory birds head south, but this season saw earlier cases, killing many wild birds, mainly common cranes along the German, French, and Spanish routes as well as a large number of waterfowl.
Between September 6 and November 28, 2,896 highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 virus detections — mostly H5N1 — were reported in domestic birds in 29 countries in Europe, with 442 in poultry and 2,454 in wild birds, EFSA said in a report.
“We are currently seeing an unprecedented sharp increase in the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus detections, mostly in wild birds,” Lisa Kohnle, scientific officer at EFSA, told Reuters.
Poultry outbreak numbers were similar to previous years but five times higher than in 2023, and almost double those of 2021. Turkiyes were the most affected.
“What is interesting for poultry is that in previous years those epidemics were characterised by a lot of farm-to-farm spread,” Kohnle said. “This year it seems we mostly have introduction from wild birds.”
For humans, bird flu infected 19 people in four countries (Cambodia, China, Mexico and the US), killing one in Cambodia and one in the U.S, EFSA said. All cases involved exposure to poultry or poultry environments.
Bird flu outbreaks in mammals were fewer than in 2022 and 2023, but remain a concern due to potential mutations that would make it transmissible between humans.
Kohnle said detections were likely to keep rising, although high wild bird mortality could prompt tighter farm controls and help slow the virus’s spread.
