EU van der Leyen urges gradual increase in corona virus locks

LONDON (Reuters) – European governments need to gradually lift corona virus locking and other social restrictions to prevent a third wave of infections, the head of the European Commission has said.

Europe is tied to the second uprising Govit-19 Infections since September have led to the reintroduction of locks in some countries and an overall increase in controls in the region.

Although cases have been sluggish in some countries in recent days, the numbers are still high and have not yet shown a clear indication. Meanwhile, Europeans are wondering if they can reunite with their families during the holidays.

Speaking on Thursday evening, EU Ursula van der Leyen said “expectations must be managed”.

“We all learned from our experience in the summer that in this case it is very difficult to get out of the first wave, and the impact of raising measures very quickly has a very bad impact on the epidemic situation in the summer and autumn,” he said.

Health professionals in Belgium The significant increase in epidemics in September and October came after the government relaxed many of the existing restrictions, such as reopening schools for a new term and allowing people to return to work.

“We will plan for a step-by-step and integrated approach to elevating control measures. This will be very important to avoid the risk of another wave,” Van der Leyen said at a virtual press conference.

As of Thursday, there were more than 11 million Covid 19 infections in Europe (including the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries). European Center for Disease Control and Prevention. France, Spain and Italy are in the top three EU member states. Czech Republic, Austria, Luxembourg and Slovenia There are a maximum of 14 day overall cases per 100,000 citizens.

Van der Leyen’s comments come after positive news about the development of the Covid 19 vaccine. Both Pfizer and Bioendech and Modernna’s vaccines have delivered high efficiencies, and the European Commission expects them to be approved in the second half of December.

EU leaders have also begun to consider which areas of the population should be vaccinated first.

Nadia Calvino, Spain’s finance chief, told CNBC’s Karen Tzo at a group event on Thursday that not everyone will have immediate vaccinations.

“We have to decide … which groups need to be vaccinated first to have maximum impact,” he added.

However, they should also take into account the issue that many citizens may be against vaccinating. In this context, Van der Leyen also said that the EU would launch a document campaign.