Due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the United States, the European Union plans to recommend that its member states reinstate restrictions on American tourists.
Sources said a decision to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel would reverse advice from June when the 27-nation bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travelers before the summer tourism season.
Due to the urgency of the situation, the order could come as early as this week, according to the EU diplomats.
If by the chance the order will be released it is considered nonbinding since 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.
It was learned that based on its policy, the European Council updates the list based on criteria relating to coronavirus infection levels every two weeks.
The EU is concerned with the rising cases of COVID-19 in US soil since the latest data shows an average of more than 1,100 COVID-19 cases a day, the highest level since mid-March.
Last week, new cases per day averaged over 152,000, turning the clock back to the end of January, and the number of people in the hospital with the coronavirus was around 85,000, a number not seen since early February.
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