Coronavirus
vaccine certificates may only be deemed valid for nine months for entry into
the European Union, according to a recent recommendation which also calls for prioritising
vaccinated travellers for movement into and within member states.

The European
Commission has proposed that member states continue to welcome all travellers
inoculated with vaccines approved by the EU, as per documents accessed by
Bloomberg. The EU wants member states to open up to all those vaccinated by
World Health Organization-approved shots by January 10.

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According to EU
Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, the body is moving away from a country-based
approach to movement to an individual vaccination status-based approach. The
European Union is also likely to come up with a new announcement on external
travel rules soon.

The introduction
of the 9-month deadline for vaccine certificates is an indication that booster
doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be required beyond the period. The EU, however,
said that it isn’t ready to propose a validity period for certificates issued
on the basis of booster shots.

The European body’s
new framework for travel comes at a time when several member states are
planning their own travel rules which many a time contradict with one another.
The commission’s recommendations are meant to inform all member states while
framing policy.

While a larger
trend of decline in COVID-19 cases is most parts of the world encouraged the
EU, among others, to gradually thinking of opening up, several parts of Europe
and other parts are witnessing a renewed surge in infections.

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Breakthrough
infections among vaccinated Americans has led to a surge in caseload in the United
States causing many hospitals to get overwhelmed. In addition to the threat of
vaccine effectiveness waring off after a period of time is the treat of the new
highly-mutant coronavirus strain found in South Africa. Countries such as Germany,
the UK, Italy, Israel have imposed restrictions on travel from several African
nations.