MONDAY, April 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) — American tourists who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be allowed to visit the European Union over the summer, a top official said Monday.
“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency [EMA]-approved vaccines,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told The New York Times. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union. Because one thing is clear: All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by EMA,” she added.
Von der Leyen did not offer a timeline on when exactly tourist travel might open up or details on how it would occur. But her comments are a top-level statement that the current travel restrictions are set to change on the basis of vaccination certificates.
She noted that the United States was making “huge progress” with its campaign to reach herd immunity, or the vaccination of 70 percent of adults, by mid-June. She added that resumption of travel would depend “on the epidemiological situation, but the situation is improving in the United States, as it is, hopefully, also improving in the European Union.”
The EMA is the bloc’s drugs regulator and has approved all three vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson) that are currently being used in the United States, The Times reported.
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