BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed
on Thursday that they must stick with tight social restrictions
for the time being and curtail non-essential travel within the
bloc as new variants of the COVID-19 virus loom, according to a
summit statement.
"The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new
variants pose additional challenges. We must therefore uphold
tight restrictions while stepping up efforts to accelerate the
provision of vaccines," the 27 member states said in a joint
statement after a meeting on their leaders on the pandemic.
"For the time being, non-essential travel needs to be
restricted," the statement added.
(Reporting by John Chalmers
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)