Americans and Europeans are on the move. But whilst borders are open in both directions, this is mostly for the vaccinated, and anyone looking at the data this week with any doubt about traveling might be wise to wait a little before making that first transatlantic trip:
- As reported by Bloomberg, rates of Covid-19 infection continue to rise across Europe. For instance, Germany is experiencing some of the highest infection rates since the start of the pandemic. Denmark, too, which has some of the highest vaccination rates, is to reintroduce measures to stem the tide, such as the use of Covid passports to enter public events. This week, Greece has also recorded the highest new rate of daily cases, reporting 6 records in 9 days.
- The World Health Organisation announced its concern last week over the rising number of Covid-19 cases across the EU and that the figures were of “grave concern.” The WHO is predicting another 500,000 more deaths by early 2022.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keeps adding to the list of EU countries which are now at the highest Level 4 Warning, ‘Do Not Travel’. As reported by Forbes, there are now more 24 EU countries under a Level 4 warning for American travellers, including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K. The CDC added the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 8 November and Slovakia the week prior.
- Incidentally, the U.S. is also above the threshold for becoming a Level 4, Do Not Travel country. As reported by Forbes, the U.S. is currently seeing 22 new daily cases on average per 100,000 people, which equates to more than 616 new daily cases per 28 days per 100,000 people–this is above the CDC’s threshold for issuing a Level 4 travel health warning.
- And as Axios pointed out, international air travel carries additional risk, even for vaccinated individuals. And this risk is not evaluated evenly. Whilst there is a general EU travel ban on U.S. travelers, the reality is that each country is managing the situation differently, meaning there are individual travel policies for American residents across all 31 EU/Schengen area countries plus the U.K.
- What’s more, as travel restrictions can change at a moment’s notice and local requirements vary greatly from home, travelers need to stay abreast of the situation and be flexible. Travelers are advised to keep checking CDC guidance, individual airlines and if in Europe, the ECDC. Moving between EU countries has become incredibly challenging, a point highlighted by The New York Times, where regions can change curfews overnight, different forms are needed for each country and different testing requirements and quarantines are in place.
- Some experts are suggesting that it would be better for American travelers to wait until spring to travel to Europe for these reasons. Peter Chin-Hong, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told KCBS Radio, as reported by MSN, “what we’ve seen with delta is rapid on rapid off. Ask an Expert. So as the weather gets warmer in Europe in the springtime, my prediction is it (Covid-19 case rates) will start coming down.”
There are currently different travel restrictions in place to enter the U.S. versus countries across the EU bloc and the U.K.
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November 11, 2021 at 03:51AM
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EU Travel: Might It Be Wise To Wait? - Forbes
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