The European Union is set to reopen its borders July 1, but most travelers from the U.S. will not be allowed to enter, NBC News reports.
European officials said June 30 that the U.S. has far too many COVID-19 cases for it to be included on the list of countries where coronavirus levels have fallen low enough to be allowed entry. Twenty-seven countries made the list, including Canada, Algeria, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. China will be added to the list if it allows travelers from E.U. countries to enter China in return, NBC reports.
To create the list, the EU looked at countries' records on testing, contact tracing, social distancing and the reliability of its national data, according to NBC. The list will be reviewed every two weeks and potentially updated after the COVID-19 crisis in other countries is assessed.
Both the U.S. and EU began seeing surges of the new coronavirus in late March, prompting restrictions and lockdown measures. But now the EUis seeing a slowdown in new cases while several U.S. states are seeing major spikes.