European Union leaders mentioned Wednesday they’re contemplating numerous public well being choices, together with vaccine mandates, to handle the rising risk posed by the omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Chatting with reporters in Brussels, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned little is at the moment recognized in regards to the variant, however sufficient is thought to be involved. She mentioned they count on scientists to have a deal with on the character of the variant in about two to a few weeks, however within the meantime are hoping for one of the best and making ready for the worst.
Von der Leyen mentioned one of the best use of that point is to get extra individuals vaccinated, and those that are inoculated ought to get booster pictures. She mentioned greater than one-third of the European inhabitants — 150 million individuals — are usually not vaccinated.
The European Fee president mentioned that whereas not everybody could be vaccinated, nearly all of individuals can.
“This wants dialogue. This wants a typical strategy, however it’s a dialogue that I feel must be had,” she mentioned.
Von der Leyen mentioned Pfizer-BioNTech has indicated it could actually speed up the manufacturing and distribution of its youngsters’s vaccine, which will likely be accessible to European youngsters starting December 13.
She additionally mentioned Pfizer and Moderna are set to ship 360 million extra doses of their vaccines by the tip of March 2022, and that boosters can be found to those that acquired their preliminary pictures.
The fee additionally urged EU members to decide to a day-by-day evaluation of journey restrictions and a readiness to impose all vital controls, together with decisive motion, if clusters of the omicron variant are discovered.
Some info for this report was offered by The Related Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
