BRUSSELS (Dispatches) - The European Union on Friday moved to reinstate COVID travel restrictions like quarantine and testing requirements for unvaccinated citizens of the United States and some other countries, two diplomats told Reuters.
One diplomat said other countries that would be removed from the safe travel list were Kosovo, Montenegro, Lebanon and North Macedonia.
The decision on new EU travel restrictions for foreigners would become final on Monday should no EU country object, the sources, as well as two more EU officials, added.
Meanwhile, production of Moderna Covid-19 vaccines at a plant of partner Rovi in Spain can continue after an initial assessment, the European Union drugs regulator said on Friday, as it continues its investigation of a contamination incident.
On Thursday Japan suspended the use of 1.63 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, with the company saying contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue on one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain run by Rovi.
“Covid-19 vaccine production in Rovi is able to continue, following a preliminary risk assessment of the information received so far,” the European Medicines Agency (EMA) told Reuters in a statement on Friday.

U.S. Coronavirus
Hospitalizations Hit
Eight-Month High

The number of coronavirus patients in U.S. hospitals breached 100,000 on Thursday, the highest level in eight months, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant strains the nation’s health care system.
U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past month. Over the past week, more than 500 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals each hour on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States reached its all-time peak for hospitalizations on January 6 when there were 132,051 coronavirus-infected patients in hospital beds, according to a Reuters tally.