The early lessons from the pandemic underlined that challenges to health systems and economies, including supply chain problems and vaccine hesitancy, could no longer be overcome by European Union Member States acting alone.

ECDC recommends that healthcare facilities maintain and strengthen infection prevention and control measures, due to the high community transmission and co-circulation of respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza, RSV and others.

The first step in SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance is testing to identify people who are infected. However, global testing rates are falling as we emerge from the acute health emergency and remain low in many low- and middle-income countries.

On 4 January, the Member States of the EU, in the presence of the Schengen Associated Countries, met in the framework of the Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) to discuss the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA and developments in China.

ECDC, together with the EU/EEA Member States and the European Commission has increased its monitoring activities and will revise risk assessments and adjust actions if needed.

Understanding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on influenza

A new framework can be used to compare influenza surveillance systems qualitatively between countries to allow the identification of structural differences as well as to evaluate adherence to WHO guidance. The framework may be adapted for other infectious