Sidebar

Exclusive Reports

19
Tue, Mar

EU To Ban US Travelers Indefinitely

Europe News
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

The European Union is set to place a travel ban on travellers coming from the US, after banning Brazil and Russia Indefinitely. The reason for the EU ban of US, Brazil, Russia, among others is due to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic; However, travel from China, as well as some developing countries, will be allowed.

The EU will reopen its borders on July 1st and has encouraged its member states to adopt the travel restrictions, or there may be stricter border controls within the block of countries. Although, the list of banned countries is still being finalized and is expected to be submitted to the 27 bloc members next week. The intention is to have it filed ahead of its planned re-opening on July 1.

The US, with nearly 2.4 million confirmed cases and more than 123,000 deaths, has for some time now been the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Brazil is second with more than 1.1 million cases and more than 51,000 deaths. Russia’s containment appears better than the US, with under 10,000 reported deaths and a little over half a million confirmed cases.

All three countries are deemed unsafe according to a set of epidemiological criteria the EU has been using to analyze countries. The primary metric is a measure of the average number of new cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days. The EU bloc has an average of 14. The US score is 107, while Brazil’s is 180 and Russia’s is 80.

Trump, like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, fumbled the early response to the virus, downplaying the severity and refusing to enact public health and safety measures that could have contained the virus early on. Trump’s most significant response was to ban travel from China in January and from the EU in March, but the virus has continued to spread through the US due to poor government coordination, planning, and messaging at the federal and state levels.

 

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS