Surveillance and study protocols
ECDC provides technical guidance to the Member States. This includes guidance for the implementation of monitoring systems for specific groups vulnerable to COVID-19, a methodology for estimating the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the population, and support to timely reporting of key information on COVID-19 epidemiology in EU/EEA Member States and the UK.
The following technical guidance is available:
The TESSy reporting protocol for COVID-19 contains guidelines on how to prepare data for submission to TESSy, lists all deadlines, and points out recent changes to the reporting metadata.
Publication
Data collection on COVID-19 outbreaks in closed settings with a completed vaccination programme: long-term care facilities, version 2.0
The main aim of this activity is to collect information on the severity of breakthrough COVID-19 infections in outbreaks at long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and to obtain a timely estimate of vaccine effectiveness in these settings, by SARS-CoV-2 variant and vaccine product.
Publication
Guidance for representative and targeted genomic SARS-CoV-2 monitoring
This document offers practical guidance for EU/EEA Member States on implementing genomic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. It also includes advice on how to estimate the number of sequenced samples needed to achieve various objectives, including the early detection of novel variants.
Publication
European surveillance of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities in the EU/EEA: aggregate data reporting - Surveillance protocol version 1.1
This surveillance protocol seeks to enable countries to report their existing national surveillance data on COVID-19 in LTCFs easily and regularly. This will enable ECDC to report national trends in the EU/EEA, with the aim of providing all EU/EEA countries with timely information to support their preparedness activities for LTCFs.
Publication
Methodology for estimating point prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection by pooled RT-PCR testing
The methodology presented in this document provides a way to efficiently estimate COVID-19 prevalence by analysing the results of pooled RT-PCR tests, without the need to identify individual test results. The statistical foundation of the methodology is explained in detail.
Publication
Surveillance of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities in the EU/EEA
It is of paramount importance to be able to rapidly identify, assess and control COVID-19 outbreaks in LTCFs in order to protect this particularly fragile population. This document provides guidance for EU/EEA Member States planning to implement monitoring systems at LTCFs and describes the surveillance objectives.