Health screening for refugees from Ukraine

• Is there any health screening protocol that is being put in place for arriving refugees from Ukraine in your country at the moment (concerning COVID-19 and/or other screenings)?
• COVID-19 certificates from Ukraine have been established as equivalent to EU certificates in the Commission Implementing Decision 2021/1380. Are there mandatory stipulations for entry of refugees arriving to your country from Ukraine when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination status, and/or is there a non-mandatory vaccination offer for arriving refugees?
• Are (and if so how are) additional vaccinations and vaccination history recorded for refugees from Ukraine in your country?

Long-term pandemic monitoring and surveillance

• Was the 'state-of-emergency' activated in your country when the pandemic hit, or other emergency legislation set in place in order to set up a COVID-19 monitoring and surveillance system, including regulations for data access and linkage of data sources? Did your constitution already include such mechanisms before COVID-19?
• As a state of emergency or emergency decrees are temporary, what will happen to your COVID-19 monitoring mechanism in the long run? Has a long-term strategy been developed to ensure the continuity of surveillance of COVID-19 and research?

Long COVID management

Are there existing or planned processes for coordinated management of care for long COVID patients in your country?

If yes, please describe/share:

• tools for (differential) diagnosis / symptom screening for clinicians?
• standardised treatment pathways for long COVID patients?
• patient information material about long COVID?
• registries of long COVID patients?

Overview of current national / international duration of “vaccination passes” / “recovered passes”

1. What is the duration of your digital certificates / vaccination passes on a national or international level (in case there is a difference)?

2. Please explain:

• if there is any difference between the vaccine given (i.e. AZ/ Pfizer/ Moderna/ J&J/ other)?
• if there is any difference when persons are boostered or not?

Daily new infections are increasing at tremendous pace throughout Europe due to the Omicron variant

• Are there any (further) containment measures (i.e. closure of businesses, closure of bars, closure of schools/kindergardens, restrictions in private or public gatherings, wearing nose-mouth masks indoor/outdoor) planned in your country? If yes, which measures? If not, please kindly explain reasons for not introducing any measures?
• If you are using risk classification systems to assess the current epidemiological risk in your country/its regions (“traffic light” systems): have you made or are you planning to make changes to them (indicators, thresholds)?

OMICRON - SARS CoV 2 B.1.1.529 variant of concern

• What is the state of play regarding the recent VOC 'Omicron' in your country?
• Has your country implemented new/adapted measures specifically to address the threat posed by the spread of the Omicron variant? (Or are such measures planned?)

Covid-19 vaccinations for children

In the light of the recent EMA decision:

• Do you currently have a specific vaccination strategy for children below 12 years? Yes/No
• If yes, please share further information.
• If yes, to what extent schools, school doctors and nurses will provide Covid-19 vaccinations for children?

1. Fake certificates

• What is the state of play on fake certificates in your country?
• Is there information on the number of false certificates available in your country?
• Do you have information on whether fake vaccination certificates are purchased for domestic use or cross-border travel?
• To what extend is border control aware of false certificates in your country?

2. Brief report on updated Nonpharmaceutical Interventions / Measures

Health of healthcare workers (HCW)

• What kind of monitoring is your country doing to protect the health of HCW?
• What factors are you looking at, when it comes to protection of HCW? (e.g. anxiety, depression, burnout, …)
• Is data on the health of HCW collected routinely in your country?

Concurrent with the 23rd Rapid Exchange Forum, the third Special Edition REF took place. To avoid duplication of work, we believe it is highly relevant to be aware of other international activities, mechanisms and expert groups already in place, or established during the pancemic, which exchange information on population health developments that require rapid action. 

To shed light on such activities, REF Special Editions invite key guests from relevant international organisations to report on their main activities, boards/expert groups, and different COVID-19 actions.

The guest speakers for the third Special Edition REF were:

• World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/EURO) – David Novillo Ortiz 
• European Medicines Agency (EMA) – Rosa Gonzalez-Quevedo 
• Vaccination Task Force Portugal – Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo