European Union governments should ramp up Covid-19 immunisations of children, Reuters quotes the European Commission as saying, as it seeks a strategy to move away from the emergency phase of the pandemic, which includes plans to develop antivirals.

With a drop of cases and deaths linked to Covid-19, the EU has entered a new stage of the pandemic in which mass testing and mass reporting of cases are no longer required, EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said, confirming what Reuters reported on Tuesday.

But new Covid-19 surges are likely as the virus is expected to continue mutating, and therefore countries should have in place plans to shift back to emergency mode, and should ramp up vaccinations, the commission said.