"Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the United States of America were removed from the list."
The European Union (EU) has added more countries to it's safe travel list as five countries, including the United States (US) have been removed from the list.
On Monday, the Council updated the list of countries for which Covid-19 travel restrictions should be lifted.
The list includes:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brunei Darussalam
- Canada
- China (subject to confirmation of reciprocity)
- Japan
- Jordan
- New Zealand
- Qatar
- Republic of Moldova
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Ukraine
They added that travel restrictions should also be gradually lifted for the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
"Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the United States of America were removed from the list," the EU said in a statement on Monday.
The move is not binding for members of the EU, with each country having the ability to choose to allow fully vaccinated US travellers, however, most member countries have followed EU travel advice thus far.
According to the recommendation, the following categories of persons should be allowed to travel into the EU under certain conditions:
- vaccinated persons
- essential travellers
- non-essential travellers from countries on the EU's list
Non-essential travel reopened in Ireland on 19 July with the rollout of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate which allows fully vaccinated people, those who have recently recovered from the virus, or people with PCR tests, to travel throughout the EU.
