With Virus in Retreat, Europe Welcomes Americans Back

(CN) --- With summer starting and the coronavirus under control, the European Union is opening its borders to American travelers once again, a year after Europe barred travelers from the United States and most other places around the world.

The resumption of international travel in Europe is a clear indication that the novel coronavirus is in retreat in both the U.S. and Europe, though the move to lift travel restrictions brings with it the danger that more dangerous strains of the virus may be allowed to spread.

Much of Europe and the U.S. are recording the fewest number of new infections and deaths since the pandemic started in the early months of 2020, according to figures tracked by Worldometer. Both the U.S. and the EU were the hardest hit in the early phases of the pandemic, but mass vaccination campaigns have brought the virus under control in both regions.

Globally, too, the pandemic is slowing, though the World Health Organization is warning that Africa is at risk of experiencing a deadly wave of sickness.

For the past two months, the number of infections has been declining and deaths too have fallen. Still, the virus continues to wreak havoc.

On Monday, the WHO said that globally more than 2.5 million people were found infected with the virus in the past week and that nearly 64,000 deaths were linked to it. The official death toll is nearing 4 million, though health experts say the number of deaths caused by the virus is far higher. In late May, the WHO said excess mortality reports suggest twice as many people have died globally than the official count.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said he was concerned about signs of a new wave of the pandemic starting.

“The rate of decline in most regions has slowed and every region has countries that are seeing a rapid increase in cases and deaths,” Tedros said during a news briefing on Monday from the WHO Geneva headquarters.

He was particularly alarmed at the prospect of the new disease taking off in Africa, a continent where vaccination rates are extremely low and where health systems are ill equipped to handle outbreaks.

“In Africa, the number of cases and deaths increased by almost 40% in the past week,” he said. He warned of the possibility of “steep epidemics” in many countries.

The biggest concern around the globe, even in places where vaccination rates are high, is the spread of variants of the virus deemed to be more transmissible and dangerous both because they can cause more severe disease but also because may be more resistant to vaccines.

The one causing the most concern is known as the Delta variant, a strain that first emerged in India. The WHO has begun using Greek letters to designate variants of concern. The Delta variant has been identified in 90 countries.

“The Delta variant is the most able and fastest and fittest of those viruses,” said Mike Ryan, the WHO chief of emergencies.

The spread of the Delta variant in the United Kingdom is worrying and shows how dangerous it may be for even countries with high levels of vaccination. About 63% of Brits have received at least one vaccine dose, one of the highest rates in the world, but the U.K. has reported an increase in cases for the past month. It is now reporting on average more than 9,000 new cases a day whereas a month ago it was reporting about 2,000 new infections a day.

The continued spread of the Delta variant forced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to delay relaxing restrictions, which were set to be lifted on Monday. Due to the prevalence of the Delta variant in the U.K., Europe has left the U.K., unlike the U.S., off its safe travel list.

With so much of the world still far behind in the vaccination drive, the WHO said the Delta strain poses a dire threat.

Ryan said it was a “moral catastrophe” that the world has failed to vaccinate the most vulnerable and at risk around the world.

“There is a huge number of people globally who still remain susceptible to severe disease and potential death from this virus,” Ryan said.

“We can protect those people now with relatively small transfers of vaccine from the global supply,” he added. “We can protect those vulnerable people, those front-line workers, and the fact that we haven't, as the director-general has said again and again, is a catastrophic moral failure at a global level.”

Earlier this month, the rich nations that make up the Group of Seven announced they will provide 1 billion vaccine doses to the WHO's mass vaccination efforts over the next year, but even that contribution will leave a huge gap. Richer countries have been accused of hording vaccines and selfishly vaccinating their entire populations.

For now, then, richer countries with high vaccination rates are enjoying a sense of freedom and a return to normalcy, as the decision to allow Americans travelers back to Europe underscores.

On Friday, the EU recommended that its 27 member states allow travelers from the U.S. back into the bloc, even if they are not vaccinated. Previously, only Americans with clear reasons for traveling to the EU – for instance, those who live or work in the Europe – were allowed in. Now, Americans are being welcomed as tourists, as are the billions of dollars they spend. Tourism is a major sector in Europe, contributing about 10% of the EU's gross domestic product and employing about 26 million people. The pandemic toll has hit the tourism sector particularly hard.

The U.S. joins a very short list of countries the EU deems to be safe enough to open its borders to because they have the virus under control. They include: Albania, Australia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. China is on the list too, but because China has not opened its borders to European travelers, the EU is not allowing Chinese travelers in.

It will be up to individual EU nations to decide who to let in, but most EU nations are expected to follow the newly published guidelines and open their borders to American tourists.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

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