The news has been hopeful this week with the unofficial promise of travel resuming for fully vaccinated American travelers to Europe as early as this Summer. Of course, with unofficial announcements such as these, come many, many questions and unknowns.
Ultimately, until an official statement is released this is all based on speculation and highly subject to change. That said, here is what indications point towards right now:
The rollout of a timeline will depend on vaccination rates here in the States, as well as abroad. While the percentage of Americans who have been fully vaccinated is currently just under 30% according to the CDC, we are leaps and bounds ahead of many countries. For example, the UK leads Europe at 20%, Denmark is at 10%, Italy, Spain, Ireland and France have yet to reach 9%, Greece and Germany hover at 7%, Croatia, which has already opened to American tourists has just 4% of their population that has been fully vaccinated. (Fully vaccinated is defined by the CDC as those who are 14 days past their second dose of a two dose vaccine such as Pfizer or Moderna, or 14 days past their one dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson) Based on this, we’ve got a long way to go.
Just because borders may open, doesn’t mean things return to normal. A travel colleague with family in Germany shared this week that “nothing is open” and lockdowns are expected to continue to June while infection rates remain at 20,000 per day for the past three weeks.
Individual countries will determine their own requirements, even with the guidance issued by the EU.
It has not yet been made clear whether vaccinated American travelers will be able to travel from country to country without testing and/or quarantine within the EU block.
Of course, with the current vaccines only being available to those 16 and over, this would prevent younger families from traveling together under the expected guidelines.
Official announcements are expected as early as today, no doubt with more questions to follow.
When taking all of this into account, if you are one of the 30% of fully vaccinated Americans with your passport burning a hole in your pocket, now is the time to plan. But first, check that passport to make sure the expiration date didn’t sneak up on you while we were grounded. Turn around times with passport renewals are quite long right now.
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