Vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 disease are well under way in all EU/EEA countries, and more detailed information is now available on the ECDC website.

Following the conditional marketing authorisation and deployment of the first COVID-19 vaccines in the EU/EEA, all countries have started vaccination campaigns by vaccinating people in priority groups. To monitor the progress of vaccination efforts across the EU/EEA, ECDC has set up a monitoring system for collection of key vaccine rollout indicators.

On 22 December ECDC released the technical report titled ‘COVID-19 vaccination and prioritisation strategies in the EU/EEA’, following the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommendation for authorisation of the vaccine Comirnaty, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer.

None of the European Union (EU) Member States could demonstrate that they reach the EU target of 75% influenza vaccination coverage for vulnerable groups, according to a new report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

It is accompanied by an editorial comment from Maria Zambon of the UK Health Protection Agency add link pleaseThis comprehensive study published by an international group attempts to estimate the global incidence of lower respiratory infections and premature deaths associated with influenza in children younger than 5 years.

Two official evaluations have been made by the national Ministry of Health of Spain of their country’s response to the 2009 influenza pandemic. The reviews focused on two particular topics - Surveillance and Vaccines and Antivirals.