Jab expiry date: EU to place nine month limit on validity of Covid vaccines
The EU reportedly plans to recommend a nine month limit on the validity of Covid vaccines for travel to countries within the bloc.
According to documents seen by Bloomberg the European Commission will recommend that member states open their borders to all travellers with a WHO-approved vaccine by 10 January.
The proposed rule changes, which are expected to be announced later today, include a nine month limit on the validity of vaccines with travellers requiring a booster jab to have access to cross-border travel.
Today’s announcement could facilitate a more joined up response to the pandemic in Europe with the bloc so far taking a patch work approach to restrictions.
Tough lockdown measures have been announced for unvaccinated people in Austria and the Netherlands as cases rise quickly in Europe.
The region has reported 29,300 deaths in the past seven days, higher than any other region in the world according to WHO data. Over 2.5m cases have been reported in the past week alone whilst case numbers in the US stood at 848,000 and 129,500 in South-East Asia.
While the UK has the highest cumulative death toll of any country in Europe at over 144,000 it also has one of the highest vaccination rates with 161 Covid vaccines administered per 100 people.
The UK’s booster programme has so far reached more than 16m people with 27.8 per cent of the population having received a third jab so far.
Read more: WHO cautions European Covid-19 cases as booster jabs make UK ‘safer’ than continent