The European Union has advised its member states to introduce a ban on non-essential travel from the US, effective from August 30th.

The recommendations created by the European Council made up of the heads of the EU member states are non-binding, but usually, most member states tend to agree with the Council and enforce the new provisions.

The threshold for being on the EU’s list of safe countries is that the ‘third country, Special Administrative Regions, and other entities and territorial authorities’ has fewer than 75 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. Over the past week, the US has had 333 infections per 100,000 people, so the EU took it off the list.

Other countries removed from the list are Israel and Lebanon, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.