Open data supports vaccination strategy across Europe
Publication Date/Time
2021-07-09T14:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
A Data Story by the data.europa.eu team
The European Union has placed its efforts to respond to COVID-19
pandemic, and vaccines deliveries to EU countries have increased
steadily and vaccination is gathering pace. According to last updated
data from 5 July 2021
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans_en#information-about-vaccination-in-the-eu],
62.7% of the EU adult population received at least one dose, with
481.6 million doses delivered in the EU. 

In a moment where science, solidarity, and cooperation between Member
States and European Commission play a mandatory role, data has
demonstrated to be the key element to design better responses to the
pandemic. 

HOW DOES OPEN DATA PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

Policymakers need accurate data to design effective countermeasures to
cope with the pandemic. In order to have a rapid response, massive
daily volumes of data accessible to everyone is essential to make
better decisions in the crisis. Efforts and transparency by public
administrations producing massive quantities of data have made it
possible to track in real-time the spreading of the virus and respond
efficiently. It also helps fight disinformation and better inform
citizens.

Furthermore, information empowers citizens to make better decisions
and be involved in the ongoing crisis that affect us all. Visualising
data and making it accessible to citizens help to achieve this.
Interactive dashboards based on open data allow the public to follow
the progress of this vaccination programme and better understand the
process. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
created interactive visualisations on the vaccination campaign thanks
to open data updated in a daily basis and visualising the upcoming
virus variants.

VISUALISING THE VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN EUROPE

To closely follow the vaccination roll-out within Europe, the European
Centre for Prevention and Control (ECDC Disease)
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en] recently released a COVID-19 Vaccine
Tracker
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/covid-19-vaccine-tracker].
This interactive dashboard visualises the progress in vaccinating
adults (18+) across the EU Member States and European Economic Area
(EEA) countries. It maps data on the number of vaccine doses that are
being distributed by the various manufacturers of different vaccines,
including the first and second doses.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS1_1.png]
 Figure 1: Screenshot of the ECDC COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

You can find information available in various formats. Additionally,
the underlying data
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/data-covid-19-vaccination-eu-eea]
is openly available for the public to reuse. ECDC collects the updated
data from national and regional authorities in EU/EEA countries
through the European Surveillance System (TESSy)
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/european-surveillance-system-tessy].

Countries take it upon themselves to know exactly what the status of
the roll-out is, and how well the strategy is being implemented. Aside
from the ECDC’s pan-European dashboard, several European countries
offer national vaccination dashboards with additional insights in
their vaccination rates. Although some countries experienced a slow
start due to stock issues, the current pace at which European citizens
are being vaccinated is increasing rapidly. The data that countries
use in their dashboards is openly available and can be found on the
respective pages. Examples are found in (list is not exhaustive):
-    Austria [https://info.gesundheitsministerium.at/]
-    Belgium [https://covid-vaccinatie.be/en]
-    France [https://covidtracker.fr/vaccintracker/]
-    Germany [https://impfdashboard.de/]
-    The Netherlands
[https://coronadashboard.government.nl/landelijk/vaccinaties]
-    Slovenia
[https://covid-19.sledilnik.org/en/stats#vaccination-chart] 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS1_2.png]
 Figure 2: Examples from European vaccination dashboards (left
column: Belgium, Austria, Germany; right column: Slovakia, France, the
Netherlands)

ECDC’S VIRUS VARIANTS DASHBOARD

Recently, the ECDC [https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en] also published a
dashboard
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/situation-updates/variants-dashboard]
which tracks the SARS-CoV-2 variants currently found in the EU and EEA
countries. The dashboard shows the proportion and sequencing volumes
of different virus variants that are of concern, namely: the Alpha
(B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.617.1,
B.1.617.2, B.1.617.3) variants, and their sequencing volumes.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS1_3.png]
Figure 3: Screenshot of the ECDC SARS-CoV-2 variants Dashboard

The data is obtained from the European Surveillance System (TESSy),
similar to the COVID-19 Virus Tracker, and by the GISAID EpiCoV
database [https://www.gisaid.org/]. The data is being monitored on a
weekly basis. 

THE EFFECT OF EUROPE’S VACCINATION STRATEGY

The effect of Europe’s currently high vaccination rate is shown by
the decreasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in European
countries. The variants of SARS-CoV-2 must be closely monitored moving
forward, but this becomes easier with the dashboards discussed. So
far, the vaccines seem to be effective, even to virus variants, hence
the Commission proposed
[https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2121]
that Member States ease some of the restrictions on non-essential
travelling from EU countries with a stable epidemiological
situation. 

The latest news
[https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/all-details-on-eu-covid-19-passport-revealed-heres-what-you-need-to-know/]
around the European vaccination program is that the EU will offer a
Digital COVID-19 Certificate or “COVID-19 passport” for all EU
citizens and residents to restore the freedom of travel, from July 1.
The Certificate is a one-page document that can be issued in both a
paper and digital format to travellers who have been fully vaccinated
against COVID-19, those who have recovered recently, or those who were
tested negative before their trip. The Certificate is expected to make
travelling throughout Europe easier, so that we can all enjoy a safe,
and well-deserved holiday starting this summer.
