Amidst rising cases of Covid-19 in the US, European Union has taken the US off from the list of safe travel countries. This means the EU member countries are recommended to not ease restrictions related to non essential travel for US citizens. Since May, many countries in Europe had started reopening for US tourists as per the recommendations of the EU. EU earlier urged its member countries to ease restrictions related to non essential travel from the US even as it emphasizes that each country is within its own right to take a final decision.
The US was added to the list of safe nations by the EU in June earlier this year and even recommended opening doors for US travelers even unvaccinated ones. One of the major criteria behind selecting the safe nations is the stability or decreasing trend in the number of Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks.
But now with the US being fully engulfed in the fourth Covid-19 wave caused by the highly contagious Delta variant, it is off the list of safe countries prepared and reviewed by the EU every two weeks. According to the latest figures, 150,000 new covid cases is coming in the US every day with hospitalization inching towards 100,000/day. The fatality figures are even worse with the country witnessing seven times more deaths than what it had registered in the month of July. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data, around 52% of the US population is now fully vaccinated which means around half of the population is still to get their dose of vaccination.
Along with the US, the EU has also removed Israel, Montenegro, Kosovo, The Republic of North Macedonia, and Lebanon from the list of safe travel nations. The list goes under the revision process every two weeks and considers a wide range of factors to decide which countries are safe and should be allowed to stay on the list.
