The White House ruled out on Wednesday that it could ask for vaccination tests in the future for European travelers or travelers from other countries who want to visit the United States, and avoided giving clues about when the current veto on entry from the European Union (EU) could be lifted. .
“That is not our intention,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded to a journalist’s question as to whether the US government will ever require visitors to the US, including those from the EU, to show evidence of having received a COVID-19 vaccine to enter the country.
The EU has been asking Washington for “reciprocity” for weeks so that fully vaccinated European citizens can travel to the United States, in the same way that it allows US citizens to do so the other way around.
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Psaki’s words seem to ward off such an agreement, and remain uncertain about when the United States might decide to lift the restrictions imposed on the entry of travelers from the Schengen zone and the United Kingdom.
Asked during her daily press conference about the possible end of this veto, Psaki reiterated that there are “working groups” that are evaluating “when it can be reopened and done safely”, without pointing to a possible date for their decision.
Although vaccination started earlier in the United States than in the EU, inoculation has slowed in recent weeks among Americans, while it has accelerated among Europeans.
More than 60% of the adult population of the European Union has already received at least a first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 and 41% have obtained the complete regimen.
For its part, in the US, 66% of adults have already received a first dose and 57% already have a full vaccination.
The EU agreed in May to open borders to travelers from third countries who are widely vaccinated or whose epidemiological situation against SARS-CoV-2 is favorable, which includes the US.
The EU countries then agreed to allow entry to people who have been vaccinated 14 days before the trip with any vaccine authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO), although the decision taken in Brussels is a recommendation, since it is the Member States that have the powers over border control.
The ban on entry to the country of passengers from the European Union was imposed by former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, and maintained by his successor, Joe Biden, when he arrived at the White House in January of this year.
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