Coronavirus: European Commission issues guidelines on testing
The European Commisssion presented on April 15 guidelines on coronavirus testing methodologies, as part of the European Roadmap towards lifting coronavirus containment measures.
The guidance aims to support EU countries in effectively using testing tools in the context of their national strategies and during the different stages of the pandemic, including when phasing out confinement measures, the Commission said.
The Commission also aims to ensure that high-quality tools are available to assess the performance of the tests.
The availability of reliable data over time is key to lifting containment measures. In order to achieve this, there needs to be sufficient monitoring of the progression of the coronavirus pandemic, including through large-scale testing, the Commisssion said.
In its guidelines, the Commission calls on manufacturers to produce “state of the art” testing kits.
“Although the science relating to testing is still evolving rapidly, this obligation is important as the information provided by these test kits is used for crucial public health decisions.”
Given the importance of tests in the current situation and the rapid development of the pandemic, the Commission is also insisting on pooling resources for the validation of coronavirus tests at EU-level.
It is important to centralise the validation and to share the results at EU and international level, it said.
(Photo: Bulgarian armed forces)
Please support The Sofia Globe through our Patreon page
