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Bloomberg and Reuters reported on the 26th (local time) that the European Union (EU) plans not to accept travelers from Japan to prevent the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
On the day, Bloomberg cited an EU official who requested anonymity and said that the EU governments plan to exclude Japan from the list of countries that can visit their country during the current Corona 19 pandemic stage. This is due to the recent increase in the number of corona19 infections in Japan.
Japan issued an emergency situation in 11 regions, including the metropolitan area, as the number of new corona19 confirmed cases reached 7,000 a day earlier this month. As of the 26th, the number of new confirmed cases per day decreased to 3853, but the spread is still serious.
The EU has decided to exclude most countries, including the United States, from the list by updating the’white list’, a list of countries that travelers can visit, the official said. Accordingly, seven countries, including Korea, Australia, China, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, and Thailand, have entered the white list.
The EU Council is set to approve a new list of whitelists that Japan is missing at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium on the 27th.
Meanwhile, in order to prevent the spread of Corona 19, the EU introduced a travel ban from mid-March last year to prevent non-essential entry of third country residents to the EU. However, as the spread of Corona 19 slowed, the executive committee, an EU administration, recommended to member states to partially lift the restrictions on entry to travelers from countries outside the EU from July 1 last year.
EU member states have prepared a list of countries recommended to lift travel restrictions, namely, a white list, which are reviewed every two weeks, taking into account criteria such as the Corona 19 situation, the trend of new cases, and countermeasures.
15 countries, including Korea, were included in the white list first prepared and released by the EU Council on June 30 last year. Since then, eight countries, including Serbia, Montenegro, Algeria, Morocco, Canada, Tunisia, Georgia, and Uruguay, were removed from the list, and Singapore was added.
Reporter Lee Ji-young [email protected]
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