15 countries on EU travel list; US may reach ‘100,000 cases a day’
China made it to the list, which will be updated every two weeks, but on the condition that Beijing do the same for Europeans; Italian study finds 40% of cases had no symptoms; virus hits family of 14 in Peru
The EU on Tuesday agreed to open its borders to 15 countries from July 1, but the United States, where the coronavirus is still spreading, will remain excluded.
China made it to the list, which will be updated every two weeks, but on the condition that Beijing do the same for Europeans, a statement said.
US neighbour Canada as well as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay were included without conditions on the list which was drawn up by diplomats on Friday, but required final approval.
Algeria, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia rounded out the countries, which was agreed to by vote among the EU’S 27 member states.
Dr Anthony Fauci said coronavirus cases could grow to 100,000 a day in the US if Americans don’t start following public health recommendations.
The nation’s leading infectious disease expert made the remark at a Senate hearing on reopening schools and workplaces.
Asked to forecast the outcome of recent surges in some states, Fauci said he can’t make an accurate prediction but believes it will be “very disturbing.”
“We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned,” said Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health.
Fauci said areas seeing recent outbreaks are puting the entire nation at risk, including areas that have made progress in reducing COVID-19 cases. He cited recent video footage of people socializing in crowds, oten without masks, and otherwise ignoring safety guidelines.
Non-essential travel to the EU has been banned since mid-march, but only ater member states closed their national borders in confusion and without coordination as the pandemic grew.
Though the list was legally non-binding, the EU said member states “remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation.”
National authorities “should not decide to lit the travel restrictions... before this has been decided in a coordinated manner,” the statement added.
Britain is considered part of the EU during its post-brexit transition that ends on Dec.31.
The original goal was to reopen to countries with an epidemiological situation “comparable or beter” than that in the bloc -- that is with 16 or fewer cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks.
However, the health-based criteria collided with national interests and geopolitics, with some countries reluctant to collectively ban the US while welcoming visitors from China, where the pandemic began.
California and Texas both marked record spikes in new COVID-19 infections on Monday, a tally showed, as Los Angeles reported an “alarming” one-day surge in America’s second-largest city that put it over 100,000 cases.
Los Angeles has become a new epicentre in the pandemic as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations surge there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom’s strict orders requiring bars to close and residents to wear masks in nearly all public spaces.
A study of coronavirus infections that covered almost everyone in the quarantined north Italian town of Vò found that 40% of cases showed no symptoms - suggesting that asymptomatic cases are important in the spread of the pandemic.
The study, led by a scientist at Italy’s Padua University and Imperial College London, also produced evidence that mass testing combined with case isolation and community lockdowns can stop local outbreaks switly.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the 14 members of the Hernandez family arrived in Peru from Venezuela two years ago with hopes high for a beter life, but the coronavirus pandemic has cruelly shatered the dream: the grandfather died and now the entire family is struggling with the disease.
“I think that life is slipping away from me,” gasps Wilmer Hernandez, 44, lying in his cramped home in southern Lima, an oxygen mask covering his face.