Andrea Ammon

Nearly 7,000 excess deaths from tuberculosis occurred in the WHO European Region in the three years of the pandemic from 2020 - 2022, compared to what experts had expected based on pre-2020 estimates. This increased mortality was a direct result of the pandemic and would not have occurred if TB diagnosis and treatment efforts had not been disrupted during the pandemic.

Ljubljana – Health Minister Janez Poklukar called for coordination of measures to form guidance for travel and crossing the borders within the EU, as he addressed a virtual informal meeting of EU health ministers on Thursday. He also urged a fair global distribution of vaccines against Covid-19.

 The head of the EU's disease control agency warned on Feb. 12 that the novel coronavirus could last indefinitely even as global infections slowed by nearly half in the last month and vaccine rollouts gathered pace in parts of the world.

Berlin/Ljubljana – Health Minister Tomaž Gantar attended a video conference with EU counterparts on Wednesday discussing the current state of the coronavirus pandemic and the proposed EU strategy for a coronavirus vaccine. He stressed more cooperation and coordination was need at the EU level.