COVID: EU removes US & 5 other countries from 'safe travel list' amid rising cases

In a major development, the European Union has decided to remove the United States from the safe travel list due to rising coronavirus infections. However, as the EU has no centralised COVID-19 tourism policy, the individual countries in the 27-nation bloc have the power to keep their borders open to US tourists. 

The EU has also removed Kosovo, Israel, Lebanon, North Macedonia and Montenegro from the safe travel list, according to AP. Each EU country can decide whether to allow "non-essential travel to the EU for the fully vaccinated travellers."  Meanwhile, on the other hand, the US is yet to open its borders for EU tourists, despite multiple requests from EU nations to lift the ban.

COVID safe list

The EU safe list, which gets reviewed every two weeks, is based on a number of COVID infections at a certain time. The threshold to make a cut on the EU list is not having over 75 new coronavirus cases per 1,00,000 individuals over the past 14 days.

In June, the EU's governing body European Council had recommended member nations to remove restrictions on non-essential travel from 14 nations, including the US.

COVID cases in the US

The US has reported a surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks due to the highly infectious Delta variant. Last week, America averaged more than 1,52,000 fresh cases each day. The number of hospitalised patients was around 85,000. For the past several days, COVID fatalities have been more than 1,200. Hospitals in states such as South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas are grappling with oxygen scarcity. In Minnesota, 95% of ICU beds are occupied. Moreover, 91% of overall hospital beds are in use.

In the US, more than 50% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Saturday's data from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in Louisiana, Texas and South Carolina less than 50% population is fully vaccinated.

The COVID vaccination drive in the US is open for both adults and adolescents. The Biden administration had recently said that over half of adolescents between 12-17 age group had taken at least one COVID-19 dose. It also informed that the vaccination rate among teens is better than any other age group.

Image: AP