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BRUSSELS (BLOOMBERG) – The European Union has decided to remove Canada, Tunisia and Georgia from its list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to an EU official familiar with the matter.
The EU also chose to reopen its borders to travelers from Singapore as a result of improving virus trends there, the official said on condition of anonymity because deliberations on Wednesday (October 21) in Brussels were confidential.
The United States will remain on the blacklist along with most other countries.
The changes are the first in more than two months on the EU’s “white list” of recommended travel, reducing it from 11 foreign countries currently to nine.
Besides Singapore, the other eight are Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, and Uruguay.
The update, backed by envoys from EU member countries in a periodic closed-door meeting, comes amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases in Europe itself and will be published in the bloc’s Official Gazette in a few days.
On July 1, the EU recommended that member states allow foreign visitors from 15 countries as part of a move to relax the restrictions triggered by the coronavirus imposed in mid-March on non-essential travel to the bloc.
Since then, Serbia, Montenegro, Algeria and Morocco have been removed from the list as a result of the resurgence of virus cases.
The EU usually reviews its list roughly every two weeks, the latest change being the elimination of Morocco in the first half of August.
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