Covid May 2020

May 2020

1 May (3,214,256 cases)

• WHO and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will boost cooperation to strengthen public health, the supply of essential equipment, training, and investment in countries most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first phase will address urgent needs and strengthen primary health care in ten African countries. The agreement establishes a close collaboration to overcome market failure and stimulate investments in global health, accelerating progress towards Universal Health Coverage.

5 May (3,545,486 cases)

• ECDC publishes: Contact tracing for COVID-19: current evidence, options for scale-up and an assessment of resources needed.

10 May (3,986,931 cases)

• WHO publishes contact tracing guidelines.
  • Critical elements of the implementation of contact tracing are community engagement and public support; careful planning and consideration of local contexts, communities, and cultures; a workforce of trained contact tracers and supervisors; logistics support to contact tracing teams; and a system to collate, compile, and analyse data in real-time
  • Because individuals may transmit COVID-19 while pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, this guidance also emphasizes the importance of quarantining contacts to further reduce the potential for secondary transmission.
  • Contact tracing may be difficult when the transmission is intense (community transmission) but should be carried out as much as possible.
  • When countries have passed the peak of transmission and case numbers are decreasing, and particularly when stringent public health and social measures are being adjusted, rapid identification of cases and contact tracing are critical to maintain low levels of transmission and rapidly identify and break new transmission chains.

13 May (4,223,701 cases)

• ECDC Publishes a 3rd update of the Technical Report "Infection prevention and control and preparedness for COVID-19 in healthcare settings - third update"

15 May (4,406,317 cases)

• ECDC published a Rapid Risk Assessment: Paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome and SARS-CoV-2 infection in children.
  • Rare disease: symptoms are a mix of the ones for Kawasaki disease (KD) and toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and are characterised, among others, by fever, abdominal pain and cardiac involvement.
  • In total, about 230 suspected cases of this new paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection (PIMS-TS) have been reported in EU/EEA countries and the UK in 2020, including two fatalities, one in the UK and one in France. Investigation is ongoing.

19 May (4,766,900 cases)

• ECDC publishes "Surveillance of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities in the EU/EEA"
  • and the “Infographic: COVID-19 in care homes“

20 May (4,861,975 cases)

• ECDC publishes technical report “COVID-19 Aviation Health Safety Protocol: Guidance for the management of airline passengers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic”

26 May (5,460,254 cases)

• ECDC publishes:
  • technical report “Considerations for travel-related measures to reduce spread of COVID-19 in the EU/EEA”
  • technical report “Projected baselines of COVID-19 in the EU/EEA and the UK for assessing the impact of de-escalation of measures”

29 May (5,777,512 cases)

• ECDC publishes poster “Poster: COVID-19 - Plan your journey” on what to do when you will fly on an airplane.