The mechanism, called the Integrated Political Crisis Response (ICPR), supports rapid and coordinated decision-making at EU political level for major and complex crises, including acts of terrorism, as well as health crises like the current one. The Council presidency uses the mechanism to streamline information sharing, facilitate collaboration and coordinate crisis response at the political level. Its tools include a web platform, 24/7 contact points and reporting.
The Croatian Embassy in China - as the embassy of the country currently chairing the Council of the EU - is in charge of local consular coordination in crisis situations. It works in cooperation with the EU Delegation in China, coordinates and arranges meetings, encourages information exchange and preparation of joint responses and seeks information from the Chinese authorities.
Despite a large number of victims, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China is far from the number of deaths caused by SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), a disease from the beginning of the 21st century that was caused by the SARS coronavirus. The new, 2019-nCoV coronavirus causes the death of 3% of those infected, while the SARS death rate was 14-15%.
According to current statistics, the 2019-nCoV coronavirus death rate is even lower, slightly above two percent, which means that chances of recovery are significant. However, that does not mean that the arrival of that virus in Europe should be neglected, the daily says.