A patient admitted to the ICU of Sichuan Suining Hospital

The European Union has offered China free coronavirus vaccines with the aim of stopping the wave of infections that has overwhelmed Chinese hospitals after Beijing put an end to the strict restrictions it had been developing to control the spread of the disease throughout the world. country.

The offer, as reported by the Financial Times, is made days before the European Union Health Ministers meet this Wednesday to offer a coordinated response to the situation in which China has been for several weeks now.

“The European Union is ready to offer its support, including expertise in public health and vaccine donations,” said the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, on her Twitter profile a few days ago.

“Global health threats require transparency, solidarity and coordinated approaches across borders. We need to work together to address the impacts of the COVID-19 situation in China,” Kyriakides explained.

For the moment, Xi Jinping’s government has not responded to the European Union’s offer, according to the economic daily. If he agrees, it would be the first time China has opened up to using vaccines created using mRNA technology. So far, the Chinese authorities have relied on their vaccines -Sinovac and Sinopharm- to fight the advance of the coronavirus.

However, the World Health Organization has already warned that the current Chinese vaccination coverage was insufficient. Thus, for example, while 93% of the population over 12 years of age in Spain has the full covid vaccine regimen, only 40% of Chinese over 80 years of age have received the booster dose, according to data from the Washington Post.

The European Union, moreover, would thus take advantage of the surplus vaccine that it stores after centralizing purchases at the European level and that are in danger of expiring due to the decrease in the vaccination rate in the territory of the 27. In Spain, for example, More than 14 million expired doses are stored, 4.91% of the total received.

The management of these surpluses and avoiding the destruction of vaccines has recently focused a large part of the debates between the European Health Ministers meeting in the Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumers (EPSCO) of the Council of the European Union since last month of September. Thus, in the last meeting held on December 9, they demanded that pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna readjust the contracted amounts and delivery times.

COVID certificate for travelers from China

On the other hand, passengers on flights from China must present an EU Digital COVID Certificate (CCD-EU) or equivalent as of Tuesday, as part of the measures adopted by the Government due to the increase in coronavirus cases in the Asian country. .

The Government announced last week that it would require passengers from China to have a negative test or complete vaccination schedule, that is, the covid certificate, and the Ministry of Health published a resolution last Saturday establishing the 3rd as the date entry into force of this measure.

But the first temperature and symptom control began on the same Saturday, December 31, with the first flight from China that arrived at the Madrid Barajas airport. The results of those tests have all been negative for coronavirus.

The new measures will continue to apply this Tuesday, when the Covid certificate will have to be presented. Direct flights from China arriving in Spain only land at Madrid and Barcelona airports.

The Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, has also explained that the Government has spoken with the autonomous communities to coordinate the measures if any positive result or any symptomatology associated with covid is detected, in order to monitor of the case.

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