E.U. Formalizes Reopening, Barring Travelers From U.S.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

BRUSSELS — The European Union will open its borders to visitors from 15 countries as of Wednesday, but not to travelers from the United States, Brazil or Russia, putting into effect a complex policy that has sought to balance health concerns with politics, diplomacy and the desperate need for tourism revenue.

The list of nations that European Union countries have approved includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand, while travelers from China will be permitted if China reciprocates.

The plan was drawn up based on health criteria, and European Union officials went to great lengths to appear apolitical in their choices, but the decision to leave the United States off the list — lumping travelers from there in with those from Brazil and Russia — was a high-profile rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Travelers’ country of residence, not their nationality, will be the determining factor for their ability to travel to countries in the European Union, officials said, and while the policy will not be legally binding, all 27 member nations will be under pressure to comply. If not, they risk having their European peers close borders within the bloc, which would set back efforts to restart the free travel-and-trade zone that is fundamental to the club’s economic survival.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/eu-formalizes-reopening-barring-travelers-from-us/ar-BB169MiL?li=BBnb7Kz

Heckuva job Trumpy. You've made the US a pariah state.

[Mr. Ected]

1. Great. My sons are supposed to start audio tech school in Amsterdam in August.

A dream come true is now a disappointment come to reality.

I don't want to be one of those entitled snobs that cries about matters of privilege, but this was totally avoidable and just another reason that Trump needs to be removed from office, one way or another.

[a la izquierda]

2. They're probably still able to

It’s tourism that’s being targeted, not students. I imagine student visas will still be issued. It’s a wholly different process.
They’ll likely have a quarantine period though.

[OnDoutside]

5. If they can get in, they'll probably have to quarantine for 14 days, so factor that in.

[Celerity]

3. K & R

[canetoad]

4. Hate to say this

But I think it's too soon.

In June we were quite smug, here in Australia, about having 'beaten' the virus. So things started re-opening, albeit in a limited way.

A month later, here in the state of Victoria, we have several cluster groups covering about 30 suburbs in Melbourne. We are in no way comparable to the infections in the US, with a couple of thousand cases in the state and twenty deaths.

However, for those council areas with the flare-ups, even stricter restrictions are being put in place with talk of limiting movement between these local government areas.

Victoria records 73 new coronavirus cases

Victoria has recorded 73 new cases of coronavirus as 10 postcodes across the state ready to return to lockdown at 11.59pm Wednesday night, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.

Of the new cases, three are from hotel quarantine, nine are associated with known and contained outbreaks, 19 were found as a result of routine testing and there are 42 that remain under investigation.

More than 20,000 tests were conducted on Tuesday and a "significant number" of the new positive cases come from hotspot suburbs, reinforcing the decision to impose the lockdown. "That trend continues," Mr Andrews said.

“Let's be very clear about this, the decisions about where these lockdowns would be applied is a matter of public health. It's not as if I sat down with a map and drew these boundaries. They have been drawn by our public health experts based on data."

Mr Andrews also said the postcode boundaries allowed for police to enforce lockdown measures. “People know which postcode they live in. There can be no confusion about that.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-records-73-new-coronavirus-cases-20200701-p557z2.html

And we thought we had it beat.

[Thyla]

6. It's absolutely too soon

And I'm incredibly pissed off by this. Here in Spain we went through some of the harshest lockdowns there was and frankly it was working. They are trying to frame this as a reward for our sacrifice. That is total BS, this is a spit in my face.

The borders need to stay shut, the virus is still out there. EU borders specifically. Stay away, we don't want visitors. Don't come, why the hell would people want to anyway. To escape your own virus riddled country presumably, which says it all.

The message is clear, we have ICU space for you now. Profits over people's lives.

This will be a disaster, we need to sell up and get back to Oz at some point but it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.