Icelandic Government classifies ski resort of Ischgl as high-risk area in EWRS

Subject: Icelandic Government classifies ski resort of Ischgl as high-risk area in EWRS

The Early Warning and Response System for the monitoring and control of infectious diseases (EWRS), operated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), is an EU- wide early warning system for notification of serious cross-border threats to health. It facilitates communication between the Commission and the Member States, enabling the swift exchange of information in the event of emergencies and thus the prevention of disease spread.

According to media reports, 1 on 5 March 2020, Iceland’s leading epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason classified the winter sports resort of Ischgl in Austria as a high-risk area after people returning from there on 25 February 2020 displayed symptoms of COVID-19. Guðnason then reported this to the EWRS, which disseminated the information.

1. What specific measures did the Commission and the Member States take as a result of the announcement?

2. The first case in Ischgl was reported on 7 March 2020, two days after Iceland made its notification to the EWRS. What was the reason for the delay?

3. Why did the Commission not recommend that the Austrian Government immediately isolate Ischgl after Iceland’s notification of the EWRS and place everybody in the resort, tourists as well as locals, in quarantine?

1 https://www.gmx.at/magazine/news/coronavirus/island-coronavirus-bekaempft-lernen-34738138

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

(29 July 2020)

1. The Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) is a tool for early warning about cross-border threats to health and information exchange about national response measures in order to facilitate coordination of responses. Definitions of ‘high-risk’ areas in the context of COVID-19 are the prerogative of Member States. Given the increasing global spread of COVID-19 by early March 2020, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stopped defining areas with presumed community transmission on 2 March 2020 (2).

2. The notifications in the EWRS are based on the criteria in Decision 1082/2013 on serious cross-border health threats (3). Member States and the Commission can post notifications in EWRS. The Commission has no influence on when the Member States post notifications in the EWRS.

3. The Commission and the ECDC provide guidance on COVID-19 containment measures to all Member States and do not make recommendations to individual countries. However, the Commission and Member States, including Austria, discussed the evolving situation at a meeting of the Health Security Committee on 2 March 2020 (4), where the ECDC also presented its latest Rapid Risk Assessment (5) from the same day. The ECDC in its Risk assessment advised Member States to activate their pandemic preparedness plans, including enhanced social distancing measures, which cover in principle quarantine and isolation of suspected cases to break transmission chains.

⋅1∙ https://www.gmx.at/magazine/news/coronavirus/island-coronavirus-bekaempft-lernen-34738138

⋅2∙ https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/areas-presumed-community-transmission-2019-ncov

⋅3∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1592305489509&uri=CELEX:32013D1082

⋅4∙ https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/preparedness_response/docs/ev_20200302_sr_en.pdf

⋅5∙ https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/rapid-risk-assessment-outbreak-novel-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-increased