As the European Union gets ready to reopen its borders to tourists, it may continue excluding American citizens thanks to the United States' failure to contain the novel coronavirus.
The New York Times reports that the EU is developing a list of countries that "would lump American visitors in with Russians and Brazilians as unwelcome" because COVID-19 cases have once against started surging in the U.S. even as they have fallen dramatically in many European countries.
"The forging of a common list of outsiders who can enter the bloc is part of an effort by the European Union to fully reopen internal borders among its 27 member states," reports the Times. "Free travel and trade among members is a core principle of the bloc — one that has been badly disrupted during the pandemic."
Data compiled by the Financial Times shows that many European countries that were initially hit hard by the pandemic, including Italy and Spain, have since driven their infection rates way down.
Italy, which saw average daily infections peak at more than 5,600 per day earlier this year, is now averaging just over 200 new daily infections.
Spain, meanwhile, saw its average number of infections peak at just over 7,900 in late March, and has since seen its numbers drop to an average of around 500 daily cases.
The United States, in contrast, is now averaging more than 27,000 new cases per day, only slightly less than the 31,000-case peak it hit in early April.
