Covid-19 infections have fallen significantly in the European Union, the continent’s medicines watchdog said Wednesday.

“The epidemiological situation in Europe is constantly improving,” said Marco Cavaleri, the European Medicines Agency’s head of vaccine strategy.

“Overall the data show a marked decline of new infections, hospitalisation and deaths,” despite the emergence of the XBB.1.5 subvariant, which Cavaleri said was expected to become the dominant strain in the EU in coming weeks.

“Although this subvariant has not caused an excessive burden of disease in other regions such as North America it is important to not let our guard down as the virus continues to evolve,” he warned.

Cavaleri also said that although Covid-19 “was not behaving yet as a seasonal endemic respiratory virus… we would expect that this is the way it might be going.

“We would expect that vaccination campaigns would take place primarily once a year,” he added.

“The best time for this would be at the beginning of the cold season when other vaccines for respiratory viruses are administered.”

The EMA believes that repeated vaccination will be better accepted if done once a year, in sync with other shots for respiratory diseases, Cavaleri said.

© 2023 AFP

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