The European Union continues to leave the United States off of its list of approved countries for travel as the number of COVID-19 cases rises across the nation.
The EU gradually lifted temporary restrictions on non-essential travel for more than a dozen approved countries on July 1 and has been reviewing and updating the list as necessary every two weeks. The U.S. was left off of the initial list and has since failed to make the cut twice as the country struggles to match the EU in its containment of the coronavirus, reporting more than 4.5 million confirmed cases as of Friday morning.
As of Thursday’s update, the list of countries approved for travel to the EU include Australia; Canada; Georgia; Japan; Morocco; New Zealand; Rwanda; South Korea; Thailand; Tunisia; Uruguay and China (subject to confirmation of reciprocity).
Montenegro and Serbia were included in the initial list but have been left off following the last two updates.
EU officials are taking several factors into account, including the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days compared to the EU average (as of June 15, 2020); development of new cases in the same period compared to the previous 14 days and general response to COVID-19 such as testing, monitoring, contact person identification, containment, treatment and reporting, among other things.
Some people are exempt from the current restrictions, including EU citizens and their family members; long-term residents and their family members in the EU and essential travelers or those whose trip is deemed absolutely necessary.