EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen has upped the ante in the coronavirus crisis by announcing an upgrade of risk to “moderate to high.”
And a special ‘corona response team’ taskforce has been established to coordinate responses between health ministers across the EU, including our own Minister for Health, Simon Harris..
The intervention from the EU Commission’s President marks an escalation in Europe’s emergency preparations to fight the deadly disease.
And it comes as here at home Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald postponed two of the party’s monster rallies scheduled for Galway and Cavan over the coming week.
She posted a video on social media where she said that she wanted to stay closer to her kids in Dublin because of the coronavirus.
Ms McDonald’s children are staying at home in self isolation because their school, Scoil Catrona on Mobhi Road in Dublin, is the school where the Republic of Ireland’s first case of coronavirus has been confirmed.
The school is closed for two weeks as a precaution because a student contacted coronavirus when in Italy last week.
In efforts to contain the spread of the virus across Europe, the EU has stepped up its preparedness.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that the risk of a widespread, sustained transmission of Covid-19 (the official name for this coronavirus) in Europe had risen to “moderate to high”.
High on its own is the highest level.
Speaking from Brussels, EU boss Ms Von der Leyen said: “ECDC has announced today that the risk level has risen from moderate to high for people in the European Union, in other words the virus continues to spread.”
European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, said: “While we should not give in to panic, the situation is likely to still get worse.
“What we have learned so far, especially given what China has been experiencing, is that every country needs to get ready.”
In a statement, the ECDC said: “Most cases reported in the EU/EEA and UK outside some regions in Italy have identified epidemiological links.
“However, there is an increasing number of cases without a defined chain of transmission.”
“A significant increase in Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks would have a high impact on public health and on healthcare systems,” the centre warned.
“This situation would be further exacerbated if substantial numbers of healthcare workers became infected.
“Bottlenecks may also emerge in terms of diagnostic capacity.
“Containment measures intended to slow down the spread of the virus in the population are therefore extremely important.”
