The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, but more and more European countries are being encouraged to open their borders to tourists and take advantage of the summer tourist season. After 2-3 pandemic waves with millions of people infected with the new coronavirus and hundreds of thousands of deaths, Europe is open to tourists and all those who want to travel for tourism, business, staff, etc.
This is possible thanks to vaccines and the millions of vaccinated European citizens. Thus, the infection rate and the number of those in serious condition in the ATI departments decreased. Vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Astra-Zeneva or Johnson & Johnson are used in Europe. There are also countries that have approved for use vaccines produced in China or Russia, but the European Union has not validated them.
"Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 will never be approved by the European Union," said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who also questioned China's Sinovac vaccine. "Sputnik has not yet been able to obtain, and can never receive, the approval of the EMA (European Medicines Agency). […] Chinese vaccine proved inadequate, look at the Chilean experience ”.
In the immunization campaign, Chile relied heavily on the Chinese vaccine Sinovac and is now considering adding a third dose to increase protection against new strains. Both vaccines, Sputnik V and Sinovac, are subject to a "continuous screening" process by the EMA, a step towards official authorization.
Sputnik V and Sinovac vaccines may not be approved by the European Union.
In his comments, Draghi said there was a need to "strengthen and possibly reform the EMA" to avoid repeating the recent "significant confusion" about vaccines. He referred to "certain discrepancies in statements" regarding the safety of Covid-19 vaccines between the EMA and national medical authorities.
"The pandemic is not over, we still haven't gotten out of it", said the Italian leader, pointing to the critical situation in which the United Kingdom finds itself. In a statement, the Italian National Institutes of Health, ISS, said the alpha variant is still the most common in the country in June, with a prevalence of 74.9%. At the same time, the proportion of coronavirus cases associated with the Delta variant increased to 16.8%, starting with June 21, from 4.2% in May.
The European Union encourages the reopening of borders and the free movement of citizens, especially for tourism purposes, without quarantine and other restrictions. For this purpose, the new one was conceived, developed and implemented COVID-19 EU digital certificate.