Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may say more on this in her end-of-year news conference from around 11:30 a.m. (1030 GMT). It was unclear when the EU health committee, which started its meeting on Thursday morning, would end and what decisions it could take. The Health Security Committee is composed of officials from health ministries across the bloc and chaired by the Commission. It has met frequently at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe to coordinate policies. China has rejected criticism of its COVID statistics as groundless and politically motivated attempts to smear its policies.

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