With the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus, which is considered to be more contagious than before, it is time for the European Union to think about ordering mandatory vaccination, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in Brussels on Wednesday.
Ursula von der Leyen , when presenting the Commission's approach to the coordinated treatment of the new wave of the coronavirus epidemic by the Member States, said that, in her opinion, an EU-level discussion is needed on mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus and how to encourage the administration of the vaccine, because one third of the EU's 450 million population is still unvaccinated. At the same time, he stressed: making the relevant decision falls under national competence.
He highlighted: due to the emergence of the omicron variant and the rapidly increasing number of cases, especially among the unvaccinated, there is renewed pressure on the health care systems, and this requires urgent and decisive action. The European Commission therefore recommends that the EU and Member States should continue to use a joint strategy to limit the entry of the omicron variant into the EU, regularly reviewing the essential travel restrictions on a daily basis.
The European Union and the Member States must be ready to introduce all necessary controls. Member States should launch campaigns targeting the unvaccinated population in all age groups eligible for vaccination and use a targeted national strategy to address vaccine mistrust. In order to maintain a high level of protection against the virus, including the omicron variant, the member states must start administering booster vaccinations as soon as possible , starting with the most vulnerable groups, he said.
Member States must introduce targeted and proportionate precautions and restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. Due to the appearance of the omicron variant, in connection with the end-of-year holidays, they must pay special attention to the application of unique measures for social contact and the information related to them. They must implement the revised approach to free movement, according to which the EU protection card is valid for a uniform period of 9 months.
When presenting the commission's proposal, Ursula von der Leyen finally emphasized that the EU and the member states must speed up the distribution of vaccines in order to reach 70 percent global vaccination coverage by 2022.
Source: Erdely.ma
