Social distancing is an action taken to minimise contact with other individuals; social distancing measures comprise one category of non-pharmaceutical countermeasures (NPCs)1 aimed at reducing disease transmission
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and thereby also reducing pressure on health services.
This document builds upon existing ECDC documents, including guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical measures to delay and mitigate the impact of 2019-nCoV, a rapid risk assessment: outbreak of novel coronavirus disease – 5th update, a technical report on the use of evidence in decision-making during public health emergencies, and a guidance document on community engagement for public health events caused by communicable disease threats in the EU/EEA.
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Guiding principles for reuse are:
Respirators which have been visibly contaminated (e.g. during procedure at intubated patients, such as suction cleaning of airways, taking probes, extubation attempts, etc.) or are damaged or not fitting, shoul
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d be discarded and cannot be taken for re-use or decontamination procedures.
Respirators may be protected by a medical face mask in order to prevent soiling.
Use of new ‘expired respirators’ (manufacturers expiry date) is possible if they were properly stored until use.
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A One Health Response. A Briefing Note
This document provides an overview of key considerations for the provision of the HIV continuum of care in the context of displaced people from Ukraine in the EU/EEA. This document has two aims: firstly, to outline what is known of the Ukrainian HIV
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epidemic, and secondly, to use the HIV continuum of care as a framework to set out suggestions based on published evidence and expert opinion on the management of the HIV continuum of care, with special consideration for people living with HIV from Ukraine. The document will also address the needs of those at risk of acquiring HIV. The main findings of this document were presented during an ECDC webinar, ‘Key considerations on the continuum of HIV care for refugees from Ukraine,’ hosted on 19 May 2022.
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The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiolgists and
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health professionals on active public health threats. This issue covers the period 7-13 August 2016 and includes updates on Zika virus, yellow fever in Angola, polio, MERS CoV and West Nile virus.
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14 June 2022.
The aim of this document is to provide concise advice to public health authorities and guide their prevention, awareness-raising and
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behaviour change interventions before, during and after upcoming summer events.
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18 Janaury 2021
EU/EEA Member States and the UK have increased their laboratory capacity tremendously over the past 11 months as the majority of the Member States reported sufficient testing capacity until March 2021.
Many countries are ad
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ding rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) to their testing strategies in order to reduce pressure on RT-PCR testing.
Some Member States have already included RADT in their case definition.
The main bottlenecks, such as shortages of laboratory consumables and human resources, as well as sample storing facilities, continue to exist and may affect the overall laboratory response to COVID-19.
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This document provides guidance on infection prevention and control (IPC) measures for people wi
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th suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) who are experiencing mild symptoms that do not require hospitalisation, therefore self-isolating at home.
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This technical guidance aims to provide guidelines to laboratories and relevant stakeholders in the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EE
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A) and other countries in the WHO European region in making decisions on establishing sequencing capacities and capabilities, in making decisions on which technologies to use and/or in deciding on the role of sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, research, outbreak investigations and surveillance. It addresses the most used sequencing technologies and their applications and proposes a central standardisation process to analyse and report the findings of SARS-CoV-2 genetic characterisations.
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Wearing a face mask can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community by reducing the release of respiratory droplets from asymptomatic / pre-symptomatic individuals or those with mild non-specific symptoms. The use of face masks for this purp
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ose may be adopted to reduce the societal impact associated with absence from work or healthcare pressures due to infection, or to protect vulnerable individuals in particular settings.
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ECDC launched the HEPSA (Health Emergency Preparedness Self-Assessment) tool, in order to support countries in improving their level of public health emergency preparedness. The tool is worksheet-based and
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is targeted at professionals in public health organisations responsible for emergency planning and event management. It consists of seven domains that define the process of public health emergency preparedness and response: 1) Pre-event preparations and governance; 2) Resources: Trained workforce; 3) Support capacity: Surveillance; 4) Support capacity: Risk assessment; 5) Event response management; 6) Post-event review; 7) Implementation of lessons learned.
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Resources and Situation Updates COVID-19
This report describes the geographical and temporal distribution of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) using molecular typing data reported by European Union (EU)/
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European Economic Area (EEA) Member States for 2015 and the preceding years.
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The first update of the ECDC ventilation guidance document contains:
key new findings that emphasise four bundles of NPIs to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in closed spaces;
updated references on the evidence of transmission in
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closed spaces;
recommendations based on the new evidence and on national and international guidance; and
an overview of national guidance ventilation documents in the context of COVID-19 based on an inquiry sent to ECDC’s National Focal Points (NFPs) for Preparedness and Response and NFPs for Influenza and other respiratory diseases.
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