This report provides an updated overview on the progress of national COVID-19 vaccination strategies and deployment in European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries, including updates on overall vaccine uptake and uptake by target group and vaccination strategies and policies.
This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 27 February - 5 March 2023 and includes updates on COVID-19, group A streptococcal infection, influenza and influenza A(H5N1) , Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), Mpox, poliomyelitis, Marburg virus disease and the Earthquakes in Türkiye, Syria.
As of 3 March 2023, ECDC will de-escalate BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 from its list of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC), as these parental lineages are no longer circulating.
On 3 March 2023, Dr. Andrea Ammon met with Thanos Pleuris, Health Minister of Greece. Discussion topics included the strengthened mandate of ECDC, antimicrobial resistance, sexually transmitted infections, blood-borne viruses and tuberculosis.
This assessment tool, which will be used during the country visits to Western Balkans and Türkiye, aims to provide ECDC with a good understanding of national communicable disease surveillance systems.
A peek behind the scenes at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - the EU agency that aims to identify, assess and communicate current and emerging threats to human health posed by infectious diseases in Europe.
In February 2023, Cambodia reported a family cluster in Sithor Kandal district, Prey Veng province, with two people (a girl and her father) infected with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.
On 28 February and 1 March 2023, an ECDC delegation and a DG SANTE delegation travelled to Berlin to meet with the WHO Berlin Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, the Association of Medical Ethics Committees (AKEK), and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).