Portugal on US ‘best avoid’ travel list

The United States has once again put Portugal on its list of countries to where it is inadvisable to travel.

It has placed Portugal on the “very high risk” category because of the rising numbers of Covid-19 infections. There were 2,316 new cases on Tuesday and an average of more than 3,000 daily cases registered over the past 7 days.
The announcement was made by the US State Department in a statement that also included Cyprus and Kirghizistan.
The warnings were issued based on recommendations from the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) which has placed both Portugal and Spain at Level 4 because of the pandemic.
However, the European Commission (EC) has called for the US government to open up the US to travellers after Portugal was placed on the list. Boris Johnson in the UK also urged the US to do likewise as it seems increasingly likely that the UK will soon open to EU travellers who have had double vaccination, without the need to quarantine.
On Tuesday the EC argued that there are “strong reasons” for the United States to open up its borders to EU travellers, without making any specific reference to Portugal now being a destination to avoid”.
“We are in direct contact with the US administration on the question of the safe restarting of all travel between the EU and US and we have received assurances that they are treating this as a top priority,” said the European Commission spokesperson for Home Affairs, Adalbert Jahnz.
Remarking that there are “technical contacts” between Brussels and Washington to overcome the ban on US travel adopted because of the pandemic, Adalbert Jahnz added that there were “strong reasons for the United States to re open to European travellers”,at a time when 57% of Europeans are totally vaccinated and 70% have already received their first vaccine dose.