The European Union plans to block most travelers from the United States, Russia, and other countries after reopening its member nation borders in July amid rising cases of the coronavirus.
EU officials, who spoke under conditions of anonymity to the New York Times, detailed on Friday the organization’s final list of countries from which it will permit travel ahead of its formal announcement next week. Among those included is China, the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, but only if the nation allows EU travelers in return.
The list, which excluded countries considered to be risky, was reportedly backed by most EU ambassadors and did not require unanimous consent. However, the organization of states can’t force member nations to abide by the guidelines, but it can reinstitute borders. The list is expected to be updated every two weeks.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the U.S. may not be excluded from the list of safe nations and could be categorized along with Canada and Australia.
In March, President Trump announced a 30-day travel ban from European countries at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.
“The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots,” he said. “As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.”
There are nearly 9.7 million reported cases of the coronavirus across the globe, with over 491,000 deaths.
Russia has reported over 619,000 cases of COVID-19 and 8,700 deaths. In the U.S., more than 2.4 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the nation’s death toll totaling more than 124,000. More than 29 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19, according to the latest reading of the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
The coronavirus has also impacted major countries in the EU. Spain and Italy have recorded nearly 248,000 and 240,000 COVID-19 cases, respectively. The death toll in Spain exceeds 28,000, while over 34,000 have died in Italy. Others countries such as Greece have only reported 3,300 cases and just under 200 deaths.
