European Union Will Allow United States Citizens Summer Vacation, This Condition

European Union illustration. (Wikimedia Commons / Håkan Dahlström)

JAKARTA - The European Union plans to give permission for citizens of the United States who have received the COVID-19 vaccine to travel to Europe next summer as part of easing travel restrictions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the 27 member states of the European Union would receive, without reservation, all people vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The agency has approved three vaccines used in the United States.

"The people of the United States, as far as I know, are using a vaccine that is approved by the European Medicines Agency. This will allow free movement and travel to the European Union," as reported by Reuters, Monday 26 April.

However, he did not specify when the trip could be continued. Most of the European Union has been known to have closed nonessential travel more than a year ago, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To note, European Union countries this month agreed to launch a COVID-19 travel permit, which will allow people who have been vaccinated against the disease, recover from infection or have tested negative to travel more easily.

Separately, the United States has administered 228,661,408 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine through Sunday morning April 25 and distributed 290,692,005 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

That's an increase from the 225,640,460 doses of vaccine the CDC said it had given on April 24 out of 290,685,655 doses given.

The CDC further explained that 139,978,480 people had received at least one dose, while 94,772,329 people had been fully vaccinated as of yesterday.

Meanwhile, 7,791,490 doses of vaccine have been given in long-term care facilities, the agency said. The CDC calculation includes the two-dose vaccine from Moderna and PfizerBioNTech, as well as the single-use vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

The United States' top health regulator said the country could immediately resume use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, ending a 10-day hiatus to investigate its link to a very rare but potentially lethal blood clot.