Americans could be barred from EU countries over spread fears

AMERICAN travellers are set to be barred from travel to European Union countries over the US’S failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to reports.

EU officials are drawing up a list of who can visit the bloc as of July 1 and the US is currently excluded, The New York Times has reported, citing draft documents.

The US has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks as the country begins to open up and is now responsible for nearly a third of all new global cases.

The surge in infections in the southern and western parts of the country shows no signs of abating as the country reported 27,465 new infections on Sunday – the second highest total for a Sunday ever recorded.

The US would join countries including Brazil and Russia, which are deemed by the EU to have failed to get a handle on the coronavirus spread.

The US and Brazil each recorded more than 100,000 cases over the seven days from June 15 to June 21, the World Health Organisation said, the only two countries with such high infection numbers.

The New York Times called it a “stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States”.

Mr Trump claimed over the weekend that he ordered a slowdown of Covid-19 testing as the high figures were making the US “look bad”.

“By having more cases, it sounds bad, but actually what it is, is we’re finding people,” he told reporters yesterday. “Many of those people aren’t sick … they may be young people.

“Testing is a double-edged sword.”