BRUSSELS —
The European Union has recommended that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus cases in America.
The decision to remove the U.S. from a list of safe countries for nonessential travel reverses the EU’s advice from June, when the bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travelers before the summer tourism season. The guidance is non-binding, however, and U.S. travelers should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent.
The EU has no unified COVID-19 tourism policy, and national governments have the authority to decide whether they keep their borders open to U.S. tourists. Possible restrictions could include quarantines, further testing requirements upon arrival, or even a total ban on all nonessential travel from the U.S.
The EU also removed Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia from the safe travel list.
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European travelers frustrated by U.S. restrictions tied to COVID-19
Most of Europe is allowing vaccinated Americans to visit, but the U.S. is retaining its ban on European arrivals.
The United States has yet to reopen its own borders to EU tourists, despite calls from the bloc for the Biden administration to lift its ban.
The European Council updates the list based on criteria relating to coronavirus case levels. It is reviewed every two weeks. The threshold for being on the EU safe list is having not more than 75 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days.
Last week in the U.S., new cases averaged more than 152,000 a day, turning the clock back to the end of January, and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients stood at about 85,000, a number not seen since early February.
U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been over 1,200 a day for several days, seven times higher than they were in early July.