EU to bar US travellers from entry despite reopening measures

European Union countries are preparing to restrict entry to Americans, due to the failure of the United States in their handling of the pandemic, according to The New York Times.

Currently, European countries are deciding on acceptable visitors based on their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The European union has not been allowing entry to anyone since mid-March except essential travellers and residents returning to their home countries. A final decision on the reopening of the borders is expected to be announced early next week.

Denmark and several other European nations have stated that they will not allow any travellers into their country from outside the EU and will continue with this policy even after July 1.

The US would join Brazil and Russia in the category of unwelcome countries as it has seen over 2.3 million cases and more than 120,000 deaths—the most of any country. It has also seen more than one million recoveries.

European leaders were frustrated with President Trump when he banned most citizens from countries in the European Union from entering the US as a precautionary measure. At the time, the US had approximately 1,100 cases of the virus and 38 deaths, while Italy's case and fatality count was driving forward unabated.

Trump hinted at lifting restrictions against Europe towards the end of May and beginning of June but hasn’t taken any action yet.

The outbreak has been slowing down in Europe but the US continues to see spikes in infections in some states, while in others case counts are on a steady decline.

The average number of new cases in the EU per 100,000 people in the past 14 days is 16.  In the US that number is 107, it’s 190 in Brazil and 80 in Russia.

As millions of Americans travel to Europe every year, closing off the border to them would cause major economic impacts.

Certain member states who rely more heavily on tourism are pushing to allow visitors to come as long as they can be tested upon arrival. While some have proposed the idea of creating closed travel zones between certain countries which they would call "bubbles" or "corridors."

Germany and France do want travellers from non-EU countries for tourism and to help build up airlines and the rest of their economies.

The European Union is making a list of countries whose citizens can enter as a step in its plan to eventually reopen its borders completely.

The acceptable list contains 47 countries, all of which have an infection rate that is lower than the EU average. The do-not-enter list contains all the nations with slightly worse or much worse infection rates than the EU average, and lists 54 countries.

When the EU agrees on a complete list, it will be announced as a recommendation before July 1. A revised version of the list would be made every week taking updates from countries around the world into consideration.