Mandatory vaccination should not be discarded as public policy to defend the population of the European Union (EU), said on Wednesday (1st) the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Public health rules in the European bloc are decided by national governments, and, on Tuesday (30), Greece announced that it will start fining residents aged 60 and over who do not get immunized by January 16th. Austria, on the other hand, intends to make the anti-Covid vaccine compulsory as of February.
The EU Executive leader’s comment comes on the day Germany recorded the highest number of Covid deaths in the past nine months. The Robert Koch Institute, the nation’s federal disease control agency, reported 446 deaths from the disease this Wednesday — the highest daily figure since Feb. 18.
The incidence rate of the disease in the last seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, however, fell for the second consecutive day: 442.9, against 452.2 on Tuesday. Local epidemiologists say that if this goes on, the country could still have 6,000 people with Covid in intensive care by the Christmas holiday, regardless of what mitigation measures authorities take in the next few days.
Von der Leyen asked the 27 member countries of the European bloc to increase the percentage of people immunized and speed up the application of booster doses. He also considered it acceptable that, while there is no scientific evidence on the effect of the omicron variant, governments require travelers to test negative for Sars-Cov-2, even when traveling within the EU, as Portugal has been doing.
Asked by reporters about mandatory immunization, she replied: “We have vaccines, which save lives, but they are not being used properly everywhere. And this is a huge cost to health. Mandatory vaccination in the European Union needs to be discussed . This needs a common approach, but it’s a discussion that I think must be adhered to.”
The president of the European Commission also highlighted that, on average, a quarter of adults and a third of the total population of the block were not vaccinated, equivalent to 150 million people, a number that she considered excessive, even excluding children and those who cannot receive the injection by medical reasons. Pfizer vaccines will be available to children in the EU on December 13th.
“The vast majority could [tomar a vacina], so I think it’s understandable and appropriate to conduct this discussion now,” he said. Von der Leyen, like several bloc leaders, said health systems were coming under pressure from Covid’s fourth wave and that the new strain could make matters worse.
Four people in southern Germany were diagnosed with Covid with the omicron variant, although they were already with a complete vaccine schedule, as announced on Wednesday. Three of the infected had traveled to South Africa recently, and the fourth person is related to one of them.
The future German prime minister, Olaf Scholz, said on Tuesday that the country will discuss the possible obligation of the vaccine — currently, 68% of Germans have taken the two doses —, but reinforced that decision of the type is up to the Bundestag, the country’s Parliament. According to the Social Democrat, the measure should start to take effect by, at the latest, the beginning of March of next year.​
The first two cases of the new strain have also been confirmed in Norway in people who have recently traveled to South Africa, officials in Oeygarden, in the west, said. The city of about 40,000 inhabitants is experiencing an increase in the number of infections, and Norway has announced the return of the use of masks in crowded places, as well as the acceleration of the application of booster doses.
In Denmark, the health security authority said that a person infected with the micron participated in a concert last Saturday (27), in the municipality of Aalborg, with about 2,000 people. The government has asked everyone present to take tests. The Nordic country registered a record of new daily Covid infections this Wednesday — 5,120 cases — and has six confirmed cases of the new variant.
Officials from the WHO (World Health Organization) reported that at least 24 countries have reported cases of the omicron variant and that 56 nations have already implemented restrictive measures at their borders in the hope of containing the advance of the variant — which contradicts the organization’s own recommendations.
The French government has announced that all travelers from non-EU countries will have to test negative for Sars-Cov-2, even if they are vaccinated. The suspension of flights from countries in southern Africa, announced last week, was extended until next Friday (3).​
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