The European Union agreed on Tuesday to reopen its borders to 15 countries excluding the virus-stricken U.S., as the pandemic accelerated globally with more than 5,05,000 deaths worldwide.
Europe’s reopening comes as countries struggle to revive economic activity while fending off new spikes of COVID-19, with hotspots still surging in Latin America and in the U.S.
After days of negotiations, EU members finalised the list of countries whose health situation was deemed safe enough to allow residents to enter the bloc from July 1 — but the U.S. was notably excluded, along with Russia and Turkey.
