The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiologists and health professionals on active public health threats. This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 28 February-6 March 2021 and includes updates on COVID-19, seasonal influenza, Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), cholera and influenza A (H9N2).

This technical guidance provides guidance to laboratories, microbiology experts and relevant stakeholders in making decisions on establishing or scaling up capability and capacity to detect and identify circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, and in making decisions on which technologies to use and for which objective.

The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiologists and health professionals on active public health threats. This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 21-27 February 2021 and includes updates on COVID-19, Avian influenza A(H5N8) virus, seasonal influenza, Ebola virus disease, chikungunya virus disease and dengue.

Between 8 December 2020 and 23 February 2021, 1,022 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus detections were reported in 25 EU/EEA countries and the UK in poultry (n=592), wild (n=421) and captive birds (n=9).

This Threat Assessment Brief considers the risk of infection related to avian influenza A(H5N8) virus to the general population and the occupationally exposed.

This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 14-20 February 2021 and includes updates on COVID-19, seasonal influenza, salmonella and Ebola virus disease.

This Technical Report presents evidence about the current status of Behavioural Insights (BI) research being conducted in the ten EU/EEA Member States that responded to an ECDC survey, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ECDC has mapped the detection and characterisation capability and capacity for SARS-CoV-2 variants across the EU/EEA. This is the fifth laboratory capacity survey since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019.

This risk assessment provides an overall update on the COVID-19 situation in the EU/EEA, including latest data on the situation with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern covered by previous targeted risk assessments.

This technical report reviews the evidence that has been accumulated since the emergence of COVID-19, in addition to what has existed on this topic prior to the pandemic, and updates the ECDC opinion on the suitability of using face masks in the community published on 9 April 2020.