Information on measures taken by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus

Subject: Information on measures taken by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), established in Stockholm in 2005, includes among its tasks: to identify and analyse, in a timely manner, emerging threats to the European Union, provide scientific advice to EU governments and institutions and help EU governments prepare for epidemics. The ECDC operates through three essential systems, each covering a different area of disease control: the threat detection alert system; the epidemiological information system and, lastly, the disease surveillance system.

In view of this, and given the COVID-19 pandemic, which is dramatically afflicting EU Member States, can the Commission answer the following questions:

What timely measures have been taken by the ECDC to prevent the spread of the coronavirus?

What tools has the ECDC been using to support EU governments in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic?

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission

(29 June 2020)

The Commission is working with Member States and international partners on all fronts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic (1). Decisions are guided by scientific evidence. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) provides scientific advice, risk assessment and surveillance data to support the Commission and Member States in their COVID-19 response.

ECDC hosts the EU Early Warning and Response System (EWRS), which first alerted of cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan, China on 9 January 2020. The EWRS continues to be a vital IT tool for information exchange between EU Member States. In terms of risk assessment, ECDC issued its first risk assessment on COVID-19 on 17 January 2020 and produces regular updates (nine updates up to 23 April 2020).

All of these have been circulated to the Health Security Committee and are publicly available on ECDC’s website, together with a wealth of other information on the epidemiological situation, numerous guidelines on infection prevention and control, leaflets, technical documents (2).

The Commission asked ECDC to provide a detailed response to the questions raised by the Honourable Member. This information has been sent by the Commission to the Honourable Member separately.

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en

⋅2∙ https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19-pandemic