EU opening up to vaccinated Americans

Plan in works for looser quarantines; many decisions up to individual nations

A waiter serves customers Wednesday at a cafe in La Ciotat in southern France as cafe and restaurant terraces reopened after months of lockdown. In a formal turning point, the European Union is planning to open its borders to vaccinated Americans and others in coming weeks.
(AP/Daniel Cole)
A waiter serves customers Wednesday at a cafe in La Ciotat in southern France as cafe and restaurant terraces reopened after months of lockdown. In a formal turning point, the European Union is planning to open its borders to vaccinated Americans and others in coming weeks. (AP/Daniel Cole)

BRUSSELS -- The European Union has agreed to open its borders to vaccinated Americans and others after more than a year in which travel into the bloc has been severely restricted, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The decision represents a formal turning point away from the eerie, economy-sapping status quo of the coronavirus pandemic, when major cities in the 27-nation bloc have been empty of tourists.

Officials said the reopening could take effect within days of final approval, which is expected this week or next and is not in doubt after ambassadors agreed to the plan on Wednesday.

"Today, EU ambassadors agreed to update the approach to travel from outside the European Union," European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told reporters. The European Council "now recommends that member states ease some restrictions, in particular for those vaccinated with an EU-authorized vaccine."

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That means all the coronavirus vaccines available in the United States would allow for travel, but vaccines manufactured in Russia and China would not. The EU guidance is not binding, so some countries could choose to be more or less restrictive than the bloc as a whole.

Another matter that still needs to be sorted out: Some EU countries currently require quarantines of all new arrivals, regardless of vaccination status. Belgium and France, for instance, require seven days. But European policymakers are working on a plan to sweep away those rules. A full proposal is expected as soon as Friday, though it could take several weeks to implement.

Britain, which is no longer a member of the European Union, has a separate set of rules, with no special treatment yet for vaccinated travelers. A traffic-light system sets out requirements based on the risk presented by different countries. Americans can travel to the U.K., but they must quarantine for at least five days.

Europe's vaccination campaign has lagged behind those of the United States and Britain, though it has picked up speed recently. Some officials have been reluctant to grant privileges to vaccinated foreigners that were unavailable to large portions of their own unvaccinated populations. But that worry is diminishing by the day, as the EU pace is now faster than that in the United States.

One-third of EU residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, compared with 48% of U.S. residents. The EU percentage is where the United States was six weeks ago.

Within the European Union, Mediterranean countries have pushed hardest to find a way to reopen. Greece, Italy and Spain depend heavily on tourism and, as a result, their economies contracted more than their northern neighbors during the pandemic.

Greece decided that it could not wait and last month opened to Americans and residents of dozens of other countries even while lockdown restrictions limited its appeal as a destination.

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Some people in tourist-dependent countries now say the coordinated EU plan is welcome, but it may come somewhat late, making it hard to salvage the initial months of the travel season.

As part of the same decision on Wednesday, the European Union plans to expand a list of countries deemed to have the pandemic under sufficient control, such that people can travel from there regardless of their vaccination status. The new criteria for the list would still be tight enough that it would exclude the United States, though the country could conceivably make the cut sometime in June if cases continue to decline at their current pace.

The European Union will also implement what it is calling an emergency brake -- an automatic halt to travel from countries where cases are spiking, in an effort to hold back more dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

MASKLESS IN NEW YORK

Meanwhile, vaccinated New Yorkers on Wednesday were allowed to shed their masks in most situations, and restaurants, stores, gyms and many other businesses could go back to full capacity if they ascertain that all patrons have been inoculated.

Subways resumed running round-the-clock this week. Midnight curfews for bars and restaurants will be gone by month's end. Broadway tickets are on sale again, though the curtain won't rise on any shows until September.

Officials say now is New York's moment to shake off the image of a city brought to its knees by the virus last spring.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared it the "summer of New York City."

Large parts of the country and world are moving toward normal after a crisis blamed for 3.4 million deaths globally, including more than 587,000 in the U.S.

Las Vegas casinos are returning to 100% capacity and no social-distancing requirements. Disneyland in California opened up late last month after being shuttered for more than 400 days. Massachusetts this week announced that all virus restrictions will expire Memorial Day weekend.

France opened back up on Wednesday as well, with the Eiffel Tower, Parisian cafes and cinemas and the Louvre bringing back visitors for the first time in months.

The French government is lifting restrictions incrementally to stave off a resurgence of covid-19 and to give citizens back some of their world famous lifestyle. As part of the plan's first stage, France's 7 p.m. nightly curfew was pushed back to 9 p.m. and museums, theaters and cinemas reopened along with outdoor cafe terraces.

President Emmanuel Macron took a seat at a cafe terrace, chatting with customers.

"Let's get used to try and live together," Macron told reporters. "If we manage to get well organized collectively and continue vaccinating, have a common discipline as citizens, there's no reason why we can't continue moving forward."

Still, the French government has put limits on how much fun can be had. Movie theaters can only seat 35% of capacity, while museums must restrict entries to allow space between visitors. Restaurants can fill only 50% of their outdoor seating and have no more than six people at a table.

France is not the first European country to start getting back a semblance of social and cultural life. Italy, Belgium, Hungary and other nations already allow outdoor dining while drinking and eating indoors began Monday in Britain.

ASIAN RESTRICTIONS

As parts of the U.S. and the EU have started opening back up, restrictions have tightened across much of Asia as the coronavirus makes a resurgence in countries where it had seemed to be well under control.

Taiwan, considered a major success in battling the virus, has recorded more than 1,200 cases since last week and placed over 600,000 people in two-week medical isolation.

In Taiwan, the surge is being driven by the more easily transmissible variant first identified in Britain, according to Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist and the island's former vice president, who led the highly praised pandemic response last year.

Hong Kong and Singapore have postponed a quarantine-free travel bubble for a second time after an outbreak in Singapore of uncertain origin.

China, which has all but stamped out local infections, has seen new cases apparently linked to contact with people arriving from abroad.

Hong Kong has responded to fresh outbreaks by increasing the quarantine requirement from 14 to 21 days for unvaccinated travelers arriving from "high-risk" countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, and, farther afield, Argentina, Italy, the Netherlands and Kenya.

Singapore has imposed stringent social distancing measures until June 13, restricting public gatherings to two people and banning dine-in service at restaurants.

China has set up checkpoints at toll booths, airports and railway stations in Liaoning province, where new cases were reported this week. Travelers must have proof of a recent negative virus test, and mass testing was ordered in part of Yingkou, a port city with shipping connections to more than 40 countries.

Malaysia unexpectedly imposed a one-month lockdown through June 7, spooked by a sharp rise in cases, more-infectious variants and weak public compliance with health measures.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has eased a lockdown in the bustling capital and adjacent provinces to fight economic recession and hunger but has still barred public gatherings this month, when many Roman Catholic festivals are held.

DOSES DESTROYED

Separately, Malawi has burned nearly 20,000 expired AstraZeneca vaccines, after conflicting advice over what to do with the doses.

Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda put some of the vials of the expired doses into an incinerator to start the destruction Wednesday at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, the capital.

"We are destroying [these vaccines] because as government policy no expired health commodities are to be used," she said. "Historically under the expanded immunization program of Malawi no expired vaccine has ever been used."

She said burning the vaccines will build public confidence that all vaccines used in Malawi are good.

The burned vaccines were the remainder of 102,000 doses that arrived in Malawi on March 26 with just 18 days until they expired on April 13. All other doses of the shipment, donated by the African Union, were successfully administered, she said.

Last month the World Health Organization urged African nations not to destroy expired doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine after several countries received doses from India with a very short shelf life. But this week, WHO reversed its position and said that the doses should be destroyed.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael Birnbaum, Chico Harlan and Quentin Aries of The Washington Post; and by Jennifer Peltz, Michael R. Sisak, Elaine Ganley, Thomas Adamson, Masha Macpherson, John Leicester, Jeffrey Schaeffer, Gregory Gondwe, Huizhong Wu, Zen Soo, Eileen Ng, Jim Gomez and Grant Peck of The Associated Press.

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