Brussels launches mass rapid test strategy to tackle second wave

Ursula von der Leyen appears this Wednesday in a virtual way to announce the EU's strategy against covid.VIRGINIA MAYO / POOL / EFE

The European Commission has approved this Wednesday a battery of coordination measures that give Brussels the leadership in the continent's response to the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic.

Brussels is at the forefront of a strategy that will be based on the massive realization of rapid tests, on tracing through a joint platform and on the consultation between national experts to avoid the diverse and contradictory recommendations of the last nine months.

"The situation of the coronavirus is very serious in almost all member states," warned the president of the Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, in her appearance to announce the measures, and has indicated that the continent is "in the depths ”Of this second wave, with 1.1 million positives detected last week and about 1,000 European citizens dying every day.

"We expect the cases to continue increasing in the next two or three weeks."

And although ICU occupancy figures are still a third of those of the pandemic in spring, it is likely that they will continue to grow with the arrival of cold and flu season.

Faced with this situation, he said, Europe must continue to strengthen its coordination on several fronts.

The community offensive against the virus will focus on carrying out rapid tests, the reliability of which has improved significantly since the start of the pandemic, according to the Commission.

The Community body will allocate 100 million euros to the acquisition of these antigen tests and will launch a collective tender process to carry out a joint purchase on behalf of the Member States that wish to participate.

It is a way of responding to the growing shortage of PCR and the saturation of laboratories, whose delay of several days to provide results complicates the fight against the epidemic.

"One advantage is that they are fast and cheap," Von der Leyen said of these tests, two key issues given the rapid spread of the virus at the moment.

Although the best guarantees are offered by PCR tests, he assured, rapid tests are "an ideal complement."

"They are not as reliable as PCR in detecting an asymptomatic infection or with a low viral load."

But it allows a high number of tests to be carried out immediately in a population with a high number of infections.

Its application at the community level, the president stressed, requires “a European approach”.

Von der Leyen has avoided entering into a dialectic of criticism of the countries hardest hit by the second wave or in praise of those that seem to be weathering it with fewer casualties and without hospital saturation.

"We are all learning," he said.

But he has recognized that, probably, the speed and virulence of the second blow of the coronavirus "has been due to the fact that the exit strategies [after the first wave] were too hasty and the prevention measures were relaxed too quickly."

The Commission itself can sing the mea culpa in this area because in June it encouraged the summer tourism campaign and established guidelines that have not served to prevent the debacle.

Virologist Peter Piot, discoverer of Ebola and adviser to Von der Leyen on the pandemic, pointed out at the press conference that "the summer should have been better used to promote testing and tracking."

Brussels now hopes to draw lessons from the first wave and manage the second with a reinforced coordination model.

Von der Leyen has announced the establishment of a platform that will bring together the national experts of the 27 members, with the aim of harmonizing the recommendations that are transmitted to the population and jointly planning the response to the crisis.

The Commission has also approved a Recommendation in which it sets the guidelines to be followed in national, regional and local strategies for the application of the tests.

Brussels also demands that each country present its national test plan before mid-November to analyze them and verify their effectiveness.

The Von der Leyen executive also urges all countries to develop tracking applications and link them to the platform created by the Commission, called the European Federation Gateway Service.

Three countries (Germany, Ireland and Italy) have already linked their applications and Brussels expects five more to connect in the coming days, with another 16 more before the end of November.

Currently, more than 50 million European citizens have downloaded national applications that alert users if they have been in contact with someone whose test has tested positive for covid-19.

Von der Leyen has also called for greater cooperation in communicating information about the epidemic.

Specifically, it has demanded that the member states communicate the number of ICU beds available, to be aware of the countries and regions where there is saturation, and those in which there are still spaces available, so that it can be addressed in a way cross-border and coordinated at European level.

It has once again reminded governments that the time has come to get down to work to design an upcoming vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.

This could begin, if the investigation and approval goes as expected, at the end of the year, so the design of logistical measures begins to be imperative.

Both the rapid testing campaigns and those of a hypothetical vaccination will be a central part of the European summit of Heads of State and Government that will take place this Thursday by videoconference, in which the leaders of the EU countries are expected to support the strategy launched on Wednesday by Von der Leyen.

"Christmas this year will be different," predicted the head of the Community Executive, trying to prepare the ground for a party scene that appears dark and lonely.

Among the initiatives launched, however, there are several that seek to “facilitate” travel by harmonizing the standards of the different countries.

It seeks greater clarity and certainty for citizens, and also avoid border closures.

"We urge that families and couples be able to reunite," said Von der Leyen.

At the moment, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, for its acronym in English) is working together with the European Aviation Safety Agency in the development of a common test protocol to be able to travel by plane in the EU.

The Commission also seeks to advance in the concert of the very different quarantine measures, something that until now has not been possible to agree between the Twenty-seven.

Information about the coronavirus

- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world

- Download the tracking application for Spain

- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities

- Guide to action against the disease