<p>BERLIN &mdash; Europeans can look forward to traveling this summer, if coronavirus cases keep declining further on the continent, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday.</p>
<p>While the European Union is developing a vaccine certificate valid throughout the 27-nation bloc, summer vacations abroad should be possible again even for people who haven’t had their shots against the coronavirus, she said.</p>
<p>“If you look at the low incidence (of COVID-19) that some of our European partner countries already have,…then I’m very hopeful that we can also generally afford to do what was possible last summer, too," Merkel said. </p>
<p>She cited the sharp drop in COVID-19 cases in Portugal in recent months after the country imposed a drastic lockdown.</p>
<p>Portugal had one of the highest infection rates worldwide in January, but by Friday the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases stood at 3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants – about a quarter of the rate in the United States.</p>
<p>Merkel said that Germany also appears to have broken its most recent outbreak.</p>
<p>“Step by step, more will be possible in Germany, too, wherever the incidence drops, and that will hopefully be the case for all of Europe,” she said.</p>
<p>Merkel spoke to reporters in Berlin, from where she took part remotely in a two-day EU summit that discussed, among other issues, the effort to develop a “green certificate” that would <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-lifestyle-travel-health-8eb8b459191d5dae8ea01c12d7e0539a"> facilitate travel across the region this summer</a>. Even if case numbers drop, some countries will likely impose restrictions – such as mandatory testing and quarantine – for travelers who can’t prove they’ve been vaccinated or recovered from infection.</p>
<p>EU leaders discussed the technical requirements for such a certificate, which would record a person’s vaccine status, and outstanding questions about how to treat people who received vaccines that weren’t approved for use in the bloc.</p>
<p>The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Saturday that the certificate was on track to be launched in June.</p>
<p>So far, about 30% of adults in the EU have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.</p>