(adds CDC guidance)
BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The European Commission said
on Tuesday it would make sense for the United States to allow
travel by people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca
COVID-19 shots, although existing U.S. guidance already
authorises those travellers.
On Monday, the White House said it would lift restrictions
from November that bar EU citizens, including those fully
vaccinated, from traveling to the United States.
"We believe the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe," Eric Mamer, a
spokesperson for the EU Commission, told a news conference.
"From our point of view, obviously it would make sense for
people who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca to be able to
travel," the spokesperson added, noting that this, however, was
a decision for the U.S. authorities.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) said that it currently considers people to be
fully vaccinated, and therefore able to travel by air to the
U.S., if they have received any of the FDA-authorized vaccines
or shots approved by the World Health Organization, which
include AstraZeneca's.
The regulatory U.S. Food and Drug Administration has so far
authorised for use the COVID-19 vaccines produced by
Pfizer/BioNTech , Moderna and Johnson
& Johnson, but is still reviewing the AstraZeneca shot.
The WHO has authorised the AstraZeneca vaccine, including
the version made in Europe. The shot is also approved for use in
the 27 EU countries where about 70 million doses have been
administered cumulatively, according to public data.
The EU has its own safe-travel list, from which the United
States was recently removed after a spike in infections there.
Most EU countries do not accept foreign nationals vaccinated
with shots which are not authorised at EU level.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans,
Bernadette Baum and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)