Washington:
While Washington has not authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19, a European commissioner on Monday expressed hope that travelers from the continent inoculated with the jab will quickly be in a position to enter the United States.
The US government on Monday announced that beginning November 1, it will lift the pandemic travel ban on all air passengers who are completely vaccinated and undergo testing and make contact with tracing.
The unprecedented travel restrictions had raised tensions among the United States and its European allies and had kept relatives, close friends and business enterprise travelers about the world separated for quite a few months as the pandemic grinds on.
In an interview in Washington with AFP, Thierry Breton, European commissioner for internal market place, mentioned the new order covers men and women vaccinated with jabs recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The agency has not authorized the AstraZeneca shot utilised by quite a few European nations, on the other hand, Breton mentioned he spoke with White House pandemic response coordinator Jeff Zients who “sounded positive and optimistic.”
However, Zients told him that “for the other vaccines, for AstraZeneca in particular, their health agency would decide.”
Whether a choice would come by the November 1 when travel resumes, Zients “seemed positive on the dates, too,” mentioned Breton, who coordinates the EU’s provide of Covid-19 vaccines.
Breton mentioned the restrictions “no longer made any sense.”
Depite Europe’s somewhat higher vaccination prices “we are on the same restrictions as China, Iran, and other countries. It makes no sense at all,” he mentioned.
The United States very first imposed the restrictions as the pandemic started in March 2020 on travelers from the European Union, United Kingdom and China, later extending it to India and Brazil.
However, the availability of Covid-19 vaccines has made continuing the travel ban a point of transatlantic tension.
That worsened in current days following Australia’s sudden announcement that it will obtain US-constructed nuclear submarines as portion of a new defense alliance, ditching a contract with France for conventionally powered submarines.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)