(TAN): The European Union (EU) plans to ban Americans from entering the bloc when it reopens its borders on July 1 citing that the United States has not sufficiently controlled the spread of COVID-19, reports said.
The United States could join Russia and Brazil on the list of prohibited countries, as all three countries have struggled to contain the pandemic that broke out earlier this year, as per reports.
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The United States has been the global epicentre of the pandemic for some time now with COVID-19 so far infecting over 2.34 million people in the country, and claiming over 121,000 lives, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. Brazil is next with over 1.1 million cases including over 51,000 deaths, while Russia is third with nearly 600,000 cases including 8,349 deaths.
Europe is presently negotiating over two possible lists of visitors based on how countries are coping with the outbreak, and could share it with the 27 bloc members ahead of the July 1 deadline, reports said. According to reports, travel from China, where the pandemic started, as well as developing nations like Uganda, Cuba and Vietnam, could be allowed as they feature on both lists.
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Neither reportedly contains the United States since it was considered dangerous because of the extent of the virus. With certain exceptions, Americans have been barred from visiting EU countries since March, although a final decision concerning future travel is expected next week, reports said.
The EU has reportedly been using a combination of epidemiological criteria to analyse countries on its draft lists, based on which all three countries are deemed unsafe. The standard is the EU average number of new infections per 100,000 people over the past 14 days, reports said. While the EU bloc has an average of 16, the United States scored 107, Brazil 180 and Russia 80, as per reports.
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