EU nations could block US tourists over virus response: report
WASHINGTON, United States — EU nations may close their borders to US travelers as they seek to reopen their economies to tourism because of how Washington has handled the pandemic, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing unnamed European officials.
One official involved in talks among European Union members about who should be allowed to visit the bloc shared draft lists of acceptable travelers — Americans were not on them.
A second official involved in the talks confirmed the lists, which have not been made public, and two others confirmed their content.
It was not clear if US officials were made aware in advance of the fact that Americans would be excluded when the EU progressively reopens to those outside the bloc from July 1.
Both draft lists would allow travelers from China, where the virus emerged late last year, but exclude Americans, as well as Brazilians and Russians.
The officials interviewed by the Times said the United States could later be added to the list of acceptable travelers if the country's coronavirus case numbers drop.
But those officials said it was "highly unlikely" that an exception would initially be made for the United States, the Times reported.
The report also makes clear that the composition of the lists is still in flux and could be changed before the deadline.
The US is by far the nation hardest hit by the deadly novel coronavirus, with more than 2.3 million cases and more than 120,000 deaths confirmed.
EU countries have largely been closed to all non-bloc citizens, except in cases of "essential travel," since mid-March.
Similarly, the United States closed its borders to most European nationals around the same time.
Spikes in infection rates in several US states have worried European officials about the possibility that travelers could spark a second wave of infections on the continent.
But barring US tourists could mean millions of dollars in lost tourism revenue for countries trying to get back on their feet economically after months of lockdowns.
Indeed, some EU countries have already opened their borders to non-EU visitors.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
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Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
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Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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