euPrevent COVID-19 and it's impact on the EMR

Closed

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first discovered in China in December 2019, and the causative virus is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since then COVID-19 has been spreading to many parts of the world including Europe. EMR is among the regions that have been heavily influenced by the spread of COVID- 19. The effects of COVID-19 were demonstrated in the EMR as one traditionally connected region has been segregated by different national policies in reaction to COVID-19, mainly to protect their own national interests. Since end May 2020, all three countries in the EMR are contemplating a transition phase in which measures have to be evaluated, lifted or changed.  Different national policies are transposed to different individual actions of citizens. Given uncertainties of the disease, individuals relate the prevention of the disease to the response policies presented by national authorities. It is important to realize that knowledge about spread in the population, compliance with infection prevention measures and relations with people’s social networks are important scientific basis to monitor the disease, and to impose measures and transition of measures in the EMR and cross border regions in general. In the longer term it is important to examine the sustainability and practical application of social isolation or containment strategies. To adopt the optimal approaches in a cross-border setting like in the EMR, we need adequate insights in COVID-19 spread and follow-up of the mitigation measures in the community. Accurate data will provide a solid basis for issuing guidance on how to best respond to the outbreak. Currently we lack comparable data on infection-prevalence and on infection prevention behaviors, collectively gathered in the EMR. Increasing our understanding of the current situation based on real-life data obtained in a standardized way in three different European countries, will provide insight on our next steps in mitigating the impact of COVID- 19. Moreover, it will give a huge insight in the effects of COVID-19 in a Euroregion. This is acknowledged by the experts (from the public health authorities, the universities, and the communities) in the EMR. This project idea comes from them and will be executed by them! Therefore, the goal of this project is to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the EMR. In order to reach this goal, four sub-goals have to be reached: 1.To assess, in a representative fraction of (young) adults and older people living in the community, the prevalence of COVID-19 antibody response and measure recent infection prevention behaviors (including social distancing) and characteristics of their social networks in the EMR. 2.To connect the results from the sub-goal 1 to the public health response measures that were implemented by the governments of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.  3.To give based on sub-goal 1 and 2 an insight in the effects COVID-19 has on a cross border region like the EMR. 4.To present the EMR as a showcase of what COVID-19 means for border regions in the EU and its effects on the daily lives of citizens in these border regions. This fully supports the European Commission “Guidelines on EU Emergency Assistance in Cross-Border Cooperation in Healthcare related to the COVID-19 crisis” of 3 April. 2020. The results and experiences of the EMR will be transferred and disseminated to the EU, to other (border) regions in the EU and to the WHO RHN. To reach these goals, this project will collect data on the prevalence of antibodies in a large population of the EMR citizens whereby epidemiology can be applied to examine the spread of the COVID-19 and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on EMR. This will be related to the compliance of infection prevention measures in EMR countries. To be concrete, 15,000 citizens randomly selected from the three EMR countries, will be asked to send a blood sample in order to be able to test for COVID-19 antibodies. This blood test round will be repeated six months later in order to see the evolution of antibodies in reaction to the changes of precautionary measures. Linked questionnaire data on preventive behaviours and cross border activities will be gathered as well. There will be 8 local citizen summits organized in order to discuss with citizens how they experience COVID-19 in general and the cross border elements. The data collected through this project will then be visualized on the Euregional Health Atlas. Therefore, the findings of these analyses will not only provide insight for the policy makers at EMR, but will also be useful for other cross-border regions in the EU, and may even serve as a good example for other parts of the world in dealing with uncertain situations caused by infectious diseases and avoid its potentially devastating effect as illustrated by COVID- 19.

Medium