Covid-19 measures – Update per October 2023

The following Y/N questions, asked in a live poll during the meeting, are intended to be displayed on the Health Information Portal:

A. Vaccination

1. Is Covid-19 vaccination for free in your country?

2. Is a booster vaccination free in your country?

3. Is Covid-19 vaccination or booster available in pharmacies?

4. Do you have a vaccination strategy / recommendation for children below 12 years?

B. Surveillance

5. Is there a Long-Covid strategy in place in your country?

6. Does your country have a registry on Long-Covid patients?

7. Is there a wastewater monitoring in your country or at least regionally?

8. Is there a national Covid-19 dashboard that is currently being serviced?

C. Measures

9. Are there actually any measures or restrictions in place?

10. Is self-testing for free in your country?

11. Is it possible to book a test-slot for free in your country?

12. Is it possible to book a test-slot against payment in your country?

13. Is it mandatory to wear face masks in hospital settings?

14. Is an evaluation of the pandemic measures in your country planned or already ongoing?

15. Can the pandemic response team be reactivated any time quickly (within 2 days)?

Harmonising advances in Long COVID research: Uniting European actors for solutions

Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) on Health Data Processing

• Are there any best practices or specific limitations? 
• Are there efforts for more coherent ELSI principles?
• Which enablers or which barriers do you experience?
• Current changes in legislation (e.g. in light of upcoming EHDS regulation)?

New Covid-19 variants

• How are MoH preparing for the next winter? Are there any specific plans or are you aware of any ongoing planning with regard to the new Covid-19 strains BA 2.86 (Pirola) and EG 5 (Eris)?
• To what extent are MoHs using lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic? Please give examples.

Biosimilar medicines

• Interchangeability: Does your country have a legal arrangement in place such that once a biosimilar is approved in the EU (or through some other mechanism) it is interchangeable, which means the biosimilar can be used instead of its reference product (or vice versa) or one biosimilar can be replaced with another biosimilar of the same reference product? If so, please briefly describe the arrangement?
• Substitution at point of issuing medicine: Can a pharmacist / dispenser substitute biological medicines with biosimilars at the point of dispensing (e.g., at a pharmacy/hospital)?
  • If so, is it a requirement of State-funded schemes / social health insurance reimbursement to substitute with the available medicine of lowest costs or medicines within a lower cost bracket? (i.e., only reimburse the preferred biosimilar)
  • If so, does the pharmacist/dispenser receive training or specific payment from the Government or insurer?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• Has the above approach encountered criticism in your country?
• Influencing clinical prescribing of biosimilar medicines: How is this done (e.g., incentives as in Best Value Biologics Programme (BvB), described below)?
• Broad process of choosing preferred biosimilars: What is the overall process to determine preferred biosimilars for prescribing over their reference biological medicine? For instance, what broad criteria are used, and what organisation has responsibility for this?
• Response to the EMA September statement: Following the September statement from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (presented below) on the interchangeability of biosimilars, is your country planning any changes to increase biosimilar penetration/uptake?

National Reviews/Inquiries of the COVID-19 Response

• Has a Review of the Response to Covid-19 been undertaken or is currently underway in your country? If so, please provide the title of the Review.
• What areas / topics are covered by the Review?
• How is the Review structured / undertaken?
• What type of Review was undertaken and what type of organisation undertook the Review?
• Are the Terms of Reference for the Review publicly available? If so, please provide a link to the Terms of Reference.
• Was the Review made publicly available? If so, please provide a link to the publication

National action plan on postviral / postinfectious syndromes

Does your country have a national action plan or similar strategic policy papers regarding postviral / postinfectious syndromes (in general or associated with specific pathogens, e.g. Long COVID)? We are interested in documents that cover aspects such as care pathways, healthcare planning and financing, data collection and registries, research, awareness raising and others. Please provide links to the relevant documents or websites?

Covid-19 impact on population´s mental health

• How does your country measure the pandemic´s effect on the population’s mental health?
• Which tools or monitoring (systems) does your country use to obtain information on the mental health of the population?
• Which subgroups are most affected in your country?
• What implementation measures have been/are being taken to respond to the impact of the pandemic?
• How does your country deal with suicidality in the wake of the pandemic? Is there any special support since the pandemic?

Covid-19 management tool

Did your country used, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a specific tool to determine the level of severity of the pandemic, at national level (e.g., level 1, level 2, level3)?  

If yes,

• was this tool linked to public health measures (e.g. different testing, isolation, quarantine, mask wearing, …, measures depending on the level) ?
• what were the different indicators included in that tool?
• is this tool still applicable today? Why?

Health crisis procedures and exercises

• We are interested to learn more about your organisation´s different roles in case of a health crisis emergency (for example an infectious disease outbreak).  If your organisation is involved in management of a public health crisis, what are your duties?
• Did your organisation ever simulate these emergencies for an (internal or joint) exercise? If yes, what are your experiences with this health crisis simulation and are you willing to share some documents?  A wide range of crisis exercise scenarios is welcome: accidents with chemical or biological agents, infectious disease outbreaks,..