EU shuts door to Canadian travellers

The European Union 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 opted to reopen its borders to travellers from Singapore as a result of improved virus trends there, the official said on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations on Wednesday in Brussels were confidential.

The U.S. will remain blacklisted along with most other countries.

The changes are the first in more than two months to the EU's recommended travel “white list,” shrinking it from 11 foreign nations at present to nine. The other eight are Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand and Uruguay.

The update — endorsed by EU member-country envoys at a regular closed-door meeting — comes amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases in Europe itself and is due to be published in the bloc's Official Journal within days.

Meanwhile, health officials in Toronto and Montreal struck vastly different tones on the state of COVID-19 in their cities on Wednesday, with Toronto's medical officer of health warning the Ontario capital could be following in the footsteps of hard-hit Europe.

Dr. Eileen de Villa said she was concerned with a oneday, 21-person rise in hospitalizations and a test positivity rate that climbed from 3.1 per cent to 4.4 per cent since Monday.

“I'm concerned that this upward climb is not over, especially when I look at COVID-19's renewed eruption in other countries,” she said.

She noted that rising cases have prompted new lockdowns in several European countries, including Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom.

“There is nothing to prevent COVID-19 from catching fire here except the choices we make,” she said.

In contrast, officials in Montreal said the situation in the city was “progressing in the right direction” following a stabilization of cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks.

“Montreal is still in the red zone and all our indicators are still in the red zone, but we are not seeing this important rise, we're seeing a plateau that has been there for the last two weeks,” said Mylene Drouin, the city's regional director of public health.

Montreal is the epicentre of the virus in Canada, with almost 40,000 cases.

Drouin credited Montrealers' efforts in following strict public health measures implemented at the beginning of October, which included closing bars, restaurant dining rooms and gyms and limiting indoor private gatherings to people who live together.