Americans travelers will be refused entry into the European Union for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S.
The EU announced Tuesday that it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, excluding U.S. travelers further because of the recent worrying spike in cases.
Travelers from other big countries such as Russia, Brazil and India will also miss out.
Citizens of Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay will now be allowed into the EU’s 27 member states.
They can also enter the four other nations in Europe’s visa-free Schengen travel zone.
Not open to Americans: France, Germany, Italy and Spain and the other smaller members of the European Union are keeping a travel on on the ‘unsafe’ U.S. in place
Americans travelers will be refused entry into the European Union for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S., it was revealed Tuesday
The EU said China is ‘subject to confirmation of reciprocity’, meaning it must lift all restrictions on European citizens entering China before it will allow Chinese citizens back in.
Countries considered for the safe list are also expected to lift any bans they might have in place on European travelers.
As Europe’s economies reel from the impact of the coronavirus, southern EU countries like Greece, Italy and Spain are desperate to entice back sun-loving visitors and breathe life into their damaged tourism industries.
More than 15 million Americans are estimated to travel to Europe each year, while some 10 million Europeans head across the Atlantic.
Still, many people both inside and outside Europe remain wary of travel in the coronavirus era, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and the possibility of second waves of infection that could affect flights and hotel bookings.
There are concerns in particular about U.S. travelers, where spikes in cases are causing the rollback and slowdown of state reopenings.
New coronavirus infections across the United States almost doubled last week with 31 states reporting an uptick in cases – as Arizona became the latest hot spot to reverse its reopening by closing bars and gyms.
COVID-19 cases across the US increased by 46 percent in the week ending June 28, compared to the previous seven days, with the majority of rises occurring in the West and South of the country.
Nationally, new cases have consistently spiked every week for four straight weeks. Daily cases have been increasing to record highs in the past week – well above the initial surge of infections that were seen back in mid-April.
Infections across the US have now surpassed 2.58 million and more than 126,000 Americans have died since the virus took hold in March.
Part of the 46 percent increase in cases in the past week can be attributed to a 9 percent expansion in testing over that time frame but health experts say lack of social distancing since stay-at-home orders were lifted in most states from Memorial Day is also a factor.
In contrast, aside from a notable recent outbreak tied to a slaughterhouse in western Germany, the virus’ spread has generally stabilized across much of continental Europe.
Countries now being allowed to enter the EU have seen a drastic decline in coronavirus cases and have managed to combat the spread within their own borders.
On June 8, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the coronavirus outbreak in the country had been crushed.
She has since come under fire after travelers to the country weren’t placed in proper quarantine or tested, leading to further infections, but there is still only 20 active cases in the entire country.
This compares to more than 1.7million active cases in the U.S.
Canadian travelers will also now be allowed entry to the EU.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that Canada is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but voiced concern over cases in the neighboring U.S.
Canadian medical officials released their latest forecasts on Monday, showing the number of overall deaths could be between 8,545 and 8,865 by July 12.
The current Canadian death toll is 8,522 compared to more than 125,000 in the U.S.
In Japan, the second country in the world to report coronavirus cases after China, deaths have been kept low compared to the U.S. with many of the population wearing masks.
It has just over 18,600 coronavirus cases whereas the U.S. is nearing 2.6million. Japan’s population is about a third of the U.S. population.
Infection rates in Brazil, Russia and India are high too, meaning their citizens are also unlikely to be allowed into the EU any time soon.
Spared disaster in the outbreak’s early days, they are all now at the mercy of the fast-spreading virus and have seen cases spiral out of control in recent weeks.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the US has the highest number of COVID-19 infections with over 2.5million cases. Brazil, Russia, India and the UK follow behind
Data collected from governments around the world by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US shows that the coronavirus has spread to almost every corner of the globe. By Sunday evening the global death toll surpassed 500,000
In Brazil and India cases have tripled in a month.
Brazil, a South American country home to 210million people, is now experiencing arguably the worst outbreak in the world after the total number of people to have had Covid-19 rocketed from 411,821 on May 28 to more than 1.31million on Sunday.
It has the second highest number of cases in the world with more than 1.3million.
Brazil also has the second highest number of deaths with a death toll of more than 59,300.
In India, cases soared from 158,333 a month ago to 528,859 today, according to the Our World in Data project.
Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of daily new cases came from countries in the Americas on Sunday, according to data published by the WHO.
More than a third of 190,000 new infections on Sunday occurred in Brazil and a fifth of them were in the US.
A demonstrator places flowers on a cross during a protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and in honour of the people who died of COVID-19 in which 1000 crosses were placed in front of the National Congress in Brazil on Sunday as cases in the country rise
Tens of thousands of travelers had a frantic, chaotic scramble in March to get home as the pandemic swept across the world and borders slammed shut.
EU envoys to Brussels have launched a written procedure which would see the list endorsed Tuesday as long as no objections are raised by member countries.
The list is expected to contain up to 15 countries that have virus infection rates comparable to those in the EU.
The countries would also have to lift any bans they might have on European travelers.
The list of permitted nations is to be updated every 14 days, with new countries being added or even dropping off depending on if they are keeping the disease under control.
It must be passed by a ‘qualified majority’ of EU countries, meaning 15 EU countries representing 65 percent of the population.
Four EU diplomats said they expected it to secure the required backing.
The list will act as a recommendation to EU members, meaning they will almost certainly not allow access to travelers from other countries, but could potentially set restrictions on those entering from the 14 nations.
In March, President Donald Trump suspended all people from Europe´s ID check-free travel zone from entering the U.S., making it unlikely now that U.S. citizens would qualify to enter the EU.
The EU imposed restrictions on non-essential travel to its 27 nations, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, which are part of the Schengen open-borders area, in March to halt the spread of the virus.
Non-EU citizens who are already living in Europe are not included in the ban.
The EU’s efforts to reopen internal borders, particularly among the 26-nation Schengen area which normally has no frontier checks, have been patchy as various countries have restricted access for certain visitors.
Greece is mandating COVID-19 tests for arrivals from a range of EU countries, including France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, with self-isolation until results are known.
The Czech Republic is not allowing in tourists from Portugal and Sweden.
The EU list does not apply to travel to Britain, which left the EU in January.
Britain now requires all incoming travelers – bar a few exceptions like truck drivers – to go into a self-imposed 14-day quarantine, although the measure is under review and is likely to ease in the coming weeks.
The requirement also applies to U.K. citizens.