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.

ECDC welcomes the authorisation of the first vaccine against COVID-19 in EU/EEA. We have been looking forward to this moment for a long time.
On 21 December, EMA recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for the vaccine Comirnaty, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in people from 16 years of age. On the same day, the European Commission has granted market authorisation for EU-wide use.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is today launching a new four-year partnership initiative in order to enhance mutual engagement and contribute to durably strengthening Africa CDC capacities in preparedness and response to health threats.

Dr Anni Virolainen Julkunen, Management Board member representing Finland, was re-elected as Chair of the ECDC Management Board at the Board’s meeting on 25 November 2020.

The number of people living with undiagnosed HIV is increasing in the WHO European Region. According to data published today by ECDC and the WHO/Europe, more than 136 000 people were newly diagnosed in 2019 – roughly 20% of these were diagnosed in the EU/EAA and 80% in the eastern part of the European Region. Every second HIV diagnosis (53%) happens at a late stage of the infection, when the immune system has already started to fail. This is a sign that testing strategies in the Region are not working properly to diagnose HIV early.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is today opening the 2020 European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE). A key theme at the ESCAIDE conference is COVID-19, with two plenaries that will focus on the epidemiology, societal impact and effectiveness of measures taken with respect to the pandemic.

On 18 November 2020, the 11th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was declared over. There have been 130 cases, including 55 deaths reported from 13 health zones in the Equateur Province since the beginning of the outbreak almost six months ago.

New data released today by ECDC show that levels of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial consumption in the EU/EEA and the UK are still of concern, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of Europe.